Changes in City leave policy discussed

By Randy Bell

An effort to improve City employee benefits could include important changes to Clinton’s policies involving annual and sick leave. It was a topic of discussion at a recent Board of Aldermen work session.

“Essentially, the issue is the state will allow [the City] to credit a certain amount of banked leave toward [an employee’s] retirement,” Mayor Will Purdie explains. “And you can credit up to that amount, [but] you just can’t go over. Our current leave policy actually gives employees less leave than the state will give you credit for. So, we’re leaving money on the table for our employees in terms of retirement.”

Purdie says changing the leave policy to match what the state offers wouldn’t cost the City anything and could encourage people to take and keep City jobs.

“We want to do anything we can to make these positions as competitive as possible to attract and retain talent.”

Another proposed change would speed up a newly-hired employee’s ability to take time off. According to the City Handbook, employees are currently not allowed to use their accrued annual leave until they’ve completed six months of continuous service, while sick leave may be used after three months of continuous service. The proposal would make both annual and sick leave available for the employee’s use the first day of the month after the leave is earned.

A third change would allow an employee to use up to six weeks of earned major sick leave for the birth of the employee’s biological child or for the placement with the employee of a child for adoption or foster care and to care for the newly-placed child within one year of placement.

And, finally, Purdie says the City is looking to allow employees to come to the aid of a co-worker in need – “to allow employees to donate leave if another employee (who has no remaining leave) is experiencing some sort of catastrophic illness or injury.”

Leave could also be donated to help an employee when a member of their immediate family is suffering from a similar illness or injury.