5.7 ERMUSR 11-10-2020 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Thecommittee also discussed the need to have the metro average as a consistent request from the lineworkerseach year, or to have the metro average be a “given” each yearto stay competitive. The Committee would like to have Commission discussion on this topic. 2. On-Call Radius – The current On-Call Radius is 20 miles from the power plant (the Residency Rule in our Employee Handbook). All employees in the On-Call rotation must live within this 20-mile radius, as determined by a straight line from the resident address to the power plant. The request was to expand the radius to 25 miles. There was discussion on the reporting time being increased if the radius is moved farther out and the safety factors to be considered in the event of a life/death emergency or catastrophic infrastructure failure (large outages or water main breaks). Thirty minutes was determined to be the maximum tolerable reporting time. The current reporting distance of 20 miles could be over thirty minutes in some areas already. Conversely, depending on the thoroughfares available for different areas, distances greater than 20 miles could have a report time of less than thirty minutes. The committee discussed whether a time limit would be morebeneficial than a mile limit. As the 20 miles is close to the desired time limit maximum of thirty minutes, and we wouldn’t want to create noncompliance if changed, consensus was to leave the radius at 20 miles. 3. On-Call Compensation- The current On-Call Compensation is 12 hours at regular rate of pay (or 8 hours at the OT rate). Employees requested increasing this to 14 hours at regular rate of pay, to be more comparable to the metro average of 14.8 hours. The On- Call Compensation wasreviewed for 2019 and year-to-date 2020, and then projected for 2021 with a change in the hours from 12 to 14.It was estimated to be about a $10,000 increase to make this change and this was acceptable. The Committee recommends increasing the On-Call Compensation from 12 hours at regular rate of pay to 14 hours at regular rate of pay. 4. Comp Time – Employees requested having the ability to obtain up to 40 hours each year through worked OTand/or On-Call pay towards Comp Time.The Committeewas favorable to implementing thisfor OT pay only, and not including On-Call pay, with a maximum of 40 hours for the year. The Committee discussed other parameters for Comp Time. For every hour of OTworked, an employee could choose to be paid at the OT rate, or earn1.5 hoursof Comp Time. Nomore than 40 hours of Comp Time could be earned in a year, and if not used by December 15it would be paid out,so no Comp Time is carried over to the next year. When using the earned Comp Time, it would need to be scheduled with the supervisor and subject to the operating needs of the Utilities. The Committee recommends allowing Comp Time based on the above parameters. 5. Longevity Pay – There were two ideas presented for consideration of awarding Longevity Pay.The Committee reviewed these ideas and reviewed a 2016 survey from MMUA regarding benefits among municipal utilities that had information on peers’ implementation of Longevity Pay. The survey results were varied and seemed to be a lower amount than either of the ideas presented. The Committee was favorable to ______________________________________________________________________________ Page 2 of 3 87