April 4, 2006

To:       RCPL Trustees  

Cc: Jim Preston, Finance and Human Resource Director

Jason Green, City Attorney

From:  Greta Chapman, RCPL Director

RE:      Library Scheduling Payroll Recommendation

The Library Board approved at the June 2005, meeting a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to the Library Union Contract. The schedule for the workweek changed from Saturday to Sunday to Monday to Sunday. The memo describing the purpose of the change is attached.

Since the implementation of this change it has been identified by City Finance/Human Resources Department that additional staffing support is needed to continue this agreement. It has also been determined the new IFAS (Integrated Financial Accounting System software) scheduled to begin October of this year will not alleviate the need for additional staffing.

Recommendation: 

The options are recommended in priority order:

• Retain the Monday to Sunday payroll schedule for the library. Allow support from library staff to address the concerns of additional time needed to input the payroll data. The Finance/HR Department is not in favor of this option as there is concern of library staff being able to input the data.
• Return to the previous Sunday – Saturday scheduling. No alternative scheduling options were discovered to support the services offered by the library, in particular library programming.

Factors in returning to original schedule:

• A majority of the staff prefer the current schedule of Monday to Sunday
• Begin the Sunday to Saturday schedule in September for the transition of the new IFAS software in October

Background Summary: Meetings were held with other City Departments to review scheduling options. The uniqueness of library scheduling is an outcome of library programming. Programming is not a fixed calendar of date and times to determine an ongoing schedule. Programming is provided based upon the changing interests of the community and the populations served.

o Library programming is not a fixed calendar due to the ever changing topics and presenters. Programming is coordinated by union staff. The Union Staff are paid hourly and to keep a minimum amount of overtime, schedules are changed depending upon the programming calendar.

o We do not schedule according to seniority. This again is a preference of the employees. It is viewed as undermining equity of opportunities in varying the degree of tasks.

o  The staff works all shifts during a single week for recruitment and retention purposes. Historically, there has been more success retaining staff with a variety of hours instead of being scheduled to work only nights or weekends. In addition, this allows staff to be more involved in the overall direction and goals of library services.

o All service points must be staffed during all open hours. Therefore tasks are shared amongst staff to provide backup as needed and distribution of the workload.

Information gathering meetings with other City department supervisors:

• Outside attendance:  Doug Lowe (Parks), Denise Rossum (Fire), Steve Allender (Police), and Coleen Schmidt (Finance)
• D. Lowe was surprised that library personnel in charge of programs were staff (union) and not nonunion staff. Parks programming staff are nonunion.
• It has since been determined the new payroll software will not accommodate multiple payroll schedules without addition staff support for data entry.
• Colleen estimated the additional entry for a separate library payroll schedule would be 115 hours of work more per year for an estimated 4 hours per week by HR.
• Discussed using seniority as a basis for scheduling and how that would impact staff. From an equity point of view, this would be a step backwards.
• Steve Allender from the Police Department reviewed the extensive scheduling done by law enforcement related to 24 hr. coverage and the number of employees. The proposals provided by Mr. Allender received the following feedback:

▪ Staff do not want to be on schedule that requires them to work 4 consecutive weekends or 9 consecutive weekends

▪ Staff prefer a weekly schedule because they only have to work every third weekend

▪ Overtime for 40+ hour week schedules

› Some of the schedules required 6 days in one week and 4 in the next.

› By contract, this would require substantial overtime

› The cost to the library would be significant

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER