City Council OKs union agreement on four-day work week

By Dave Toplikar

Published Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2010 | 10:57 a.m.

Updated Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2010 | 1:14 p.m.

After months of negotiations with its largest employees union, the Las Vegas City Council has unanimously approved an agreement on concessions that will put most of the city's employees on a 38-hour, four-day work week.

The pact saves the city close to $22 million over the next two years — and helps the city forestall more layoffs as the council deals with an estimated $47 million budget shortfall in the next fiscal year.

"As a labor leader, I will tell you that it's hard to make concessions," Don King, president of the Las Vegas City Employees Association, told the council.

The 1,500-member CEA, which represents about half of the city's employees, ranging from engineers to clerical workers, voted Tuesday night to approve the concessions negotiators made with the city, King said. He said it was the largest turnout ever for such a meeting and it passed with an overwhelming majority.

"We believe it's the right thing to do," he said.

Among the concessions:

• Most city employees would go to a 38-hour work week of four 9.5-hour days, starting in January. They would work Monday through Thursday, with only those in essential services working Fridays.

• Employees would be paid for 38 hours a week, rather than for 40 hours a week. The city would also have the flexibility to return to a 40-hour workweek when needed.

• The city would close its offices the week of Dec. 26, 2010, amounting to four days of unpaid furlough for employees covered under the CEA agreement.

• Cost-of-living adjustments will be suspended for two years, starting in June 2011, and annual step increases will be suspended for two years starting in January 2011. Longevity pay will be frozen for two years.

"We were trying to address our fiscal stability and sustain that, keep our services strong so that we can continue to deliver them and we were going to try to preserve as many jobs as possible," said City Manager Betsy Fretwell. "This deal does all three of those things."

Fretwell said the key concept of the deal is that it helps to keep jobs for city employees.

"It helps us to avoid massive layoffs, we hope, unless there is a downturn in the economy," she said. "It helps us address compensation rates to be more in line with what the market supports."

She said it saves the city $22 million during the next two years and creates more affordable employees.

"Most of all, this deal goes a long way in stabilizing our financial situation," she said. "... We still have work to do. This is one piece of the puzzle."

Mayor Oscar Goodman, who voted for the agreement, said he was initially concerned about how the city was going to maintain its services on Fridays.

However, Fretwell said the city's experience is that Fridays are its lightest days now for people seeking services.

She explained that a system will be set up that people seeking city services will be directed to an employee who is already working that day, who will route the call to the correct salaried staff person.

She said various departments, including police, fire, detention center, municipal courts, parks and recreation services and public works will continue to operate on a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week basis, she said.