Published June 3, 2015

4-day week at Road Dept.

Courtesy The Wiregrass Farmer

The County Road Department is going to a 4-day work week. The Road Department had done this one time before, but went back to a 5-day week upon orders from the Commissioners.

“We had a problem with it before,” said Commissioner Joe Burgess.

Road Superintendent Brent Rucker made the recommendation to the County Commission at last week’s workshop meeting.

“The biggest thing is it builds morale. It builds the heartbeat of the department,” he said.

Commissioner Brad Calhoun worried that if a holiday fell on Friday, employees would take Thursday off and only work 3 days in the week.

“I guarantee you, you won’t see any [negative] difference. If you do, I’ll be the first one to say go back,” he told Commissioners.

County Manager Mary Wynn said working four 10-hour days instead of five 8-hour days would “give two more hours a week in the seat on equipment.”

Part of the Road Department employees’ time on the clock is getting to and from the shop to the work sites.

Mr. Rucker said 13 of the 14 employees in the Road Department support the idea of a 4-day work week.

The two County Shop employees will rotate their schedules. One week, 1 employee will have a 4-day week with 10 hours a day. The other employee will work 5 days at 8 hours a day. They will swap schedules the next week. This makes sure someone is at the shop during regular business hours. The off-duty employee will also be on-call in case something comes in that requires two people.

LESS TIME AWAY

Having Fridays off should mean less time away from work during the rest of the week. Mrs. Wynn said employees will be encouraged to schedule appointments for Fridays.

HOLIDAY PAY

Under the proposal, employees would only get 8 hours for holiday pay. That means they’d be paid for 38 hours, not 40, for weeks that have a holiday. Mr. Rucker said employees could take 2 hours vacation time to make up those 2 hours, if they wanted to. Taking the two hours vacation time is strictly voluntary, he said.

“Nobody is forcing it down their throats,” he said.

Commissioner Daryl Hall said the County’s personnel plan will not let a department head dictate when employees can take annual leave.

“Why not?” asked Chairman Sam McCard.

“We never have,” Mr. Hall said.

“It wouldn’t be right,” Commissioner Burgess said.

Some companies do have annual leave policies, preventing employees from taking vacation during peak work times.

“I disagree that the supervisor can’t schedule time off for employees,” Mr. McCard said.