Subject:
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Intent to adopt amendments to Chapter 11 of the Town Code - Personnel relating to updates in human resources terminology, authorizations for business operations, and holidays
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EXPLANATION AND SUMMARY:
Over time since 1969, when the Personnel Code was established, there have been revisions made to parts and sections of the Code, up to and including in 2014. It appears that the last sweeping review of the Personnel Code occurred in 2012. However, as we have attempted in the last few years to apply the Personnel Code to daily Town work force management, we have noted that some syntax and language in the current text is archaic to current human resources standards and incompatible with standards used by other local and national jurisdictions. We propose changes to correct these anomalies.
* Additional laws recently extended by the Commonwealth have been included to clarify the area of non-discrimination and language added to preclude the need to correct the text as newly expanded discrimination laws come into effect.
* We propose new language for actual terminology used in the management of human resources and used commonly in administrative regulations.
* Further, we propose new language to ease business continuity in matters that have been cumbersome in attempting to obtain authorizations for minor actions; e.g., the all-encompassing rule that "all requests" for leave without pay must be approved by the Town Manager. In practicality, not all leave without pay is "requested" by an employee; Town supervisors have the authority to not pay an hourly-wage employee for hours they do not work and do not report, as they are the approvers of "time" for pay purposes.
* A substantial change is in the holidays section, where the Town Manager requests replacement of one new holiday for another and the addition of one-half day to Christmas Eve, at an additional cost of $14,000.
The attached matrix indicates all proposed changes by section of the Pers...
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