Dalton Board OKs Personnel Policies, Handbook Updates
DALTON, Mass. — The Select Board started approving updates to the town's Personnel Policies and Administrative Procedures Handbook last week.
Town Manager Eric Anderson, who started his new role on Nov. 1, presented to the board proposed amendments to the policies.
The town's solicitor, KP Law, reviewed the document and made suggested changes to verbiage that didn't change the document's intent and did not require the board to sign off.
However, there are six items that require board-level approval including amendments to the Commercial Driver's License training reimbursement, implementing a bi-weekly pay period and requiring direct deposit checks, holiday pay when an employee is not scheduled to work, the vacation payout policy, the sick-leave medical documentation threshold, and parental or family leave policy.
Three of the six were approved last Monday: the CDL reimbursement, bi-weekly pay period, and sick-leave threshold.
The remaining three were tabled to be discussed in more depth when there was a full board, as only three of the five board members were present with Marc Strout and John Boyle absent.
The town reimburses employees for training and certifications that are necessary or beneficial to their job, but one thing the town has never done is pay for public works employees to get their CDL training, Anderson said.
"Ideally. We would hire people that already have a CDL as a public works employee, but it's been a while since we as a town have been able to find somebody that already had it," he said.
Currently, employees are responsible for obtaining and paying for their own CDL within six months to maintain employment.
Anderson suggested having the town cover the cost of obtaining the CDL, with the condition that employees reimburse the town if they leave before a year of employment, which is what the town does for other departments.
"We need them to get their CDL license sooner rather than later, because without a CDL license, that really restricts what equipment they can run," he said.
Board members discussed extending the reimbursement period to more than one year. Anderson recommended applying this change to all departments, not just public works.
The board approved the policy effective July 1, keeping in line with what they currently do and will revisit it again at the end of the fiscal year to decide to change it across all departments.
The board also approved implementing a bi-weekly pay period and requiring direct deposit for checks.
"I get that some employees like the luxury of being paid every week, but it frees up an awful lot of personnel time," Anderson said.
The town has already announced to the unions and employees of this change and the employees reaction to this change have been mixed, he said.
"Yes, there's an impact on the employee with changing this pay schedule, but I think it really is in the best interest of town to be more efficient, conserve costs, reduce costs, and ultimately, that's a job that we are elected to do, is to make decisions, hopefully the best interest of the town. So, I support this," Select Board member Dan Esko said.
The only concern Esko had was the impact requiring direct deposit would have on individuals without a back account, which Anderson said is unlikely in this day and age.
The only people who should be exempt are election workers, because they're paid extremely infrequently, Anderson said.
"Every bit of change is hard. As far as direct deposit employee wide, we're down to four employees, pretty soon we'll be down to three employees that are not direct deposit. So we're not forcing a ton of people to change," he said.
The final policy they approved was the sick-leave medical documentation threshold. The current policy requires a doctor's note after 14 consecutive sick days. The board agreed to reduce this to 7 calendar days.
"I don't think 14 is the appropriate number. If you're sick and you can't go to work for 13 days straight, you should certainly be seen by a physician," Anderson said.
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