By: John Fryman
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
john@thevillagereporter.com
The Edgerton Wage and Compensation Committee discussed establishing an unpaid leave policy for village employees at its meeting on Wednesday, March 25.
Committee members in attendance were Chuck Wallace, Jason Gruver, and Pam Wampler.
Village Administrator Dawn Fitzcharles said the village’s current policies do not include a formal unpaid leave designation for employees facing extended absences.
Fitzcharles said there are multiple reasons such a policy would be needed. “I want to make sure that we’re cognizant of the different lengths of service that we have,” said Fitzcharles.
“We have a sick-time donation policy where if the employee exhausts their needs, other employees can donate up to 120 hours of that.
“We need some sort of classification or precedent that if an employee needs to be off more than they need or the donated need they have. But we’re able to put them in a status that doesn’t terminate them.”
Under the village’s classifications, an employee receives two weeks of vacation and is not eligible for additional time off until reaching five years of service. The village does have a program in which employees can donate up to 120 hours of leave to another employee.
“We got a lot of new people, and so they don’t have enough time if they experience any sort of medical condition where they have six months’ worth of leave, but ultimately they need six months and 25 days,” said Fitzcharles. “The way we’re set up right now, the person would be subject to termination.”
She also said the village needs more flexibility regarding unpaid leave.
“We don’t have any currently, and we don’t have guidelines spelled out in that,” Fitzcharles added. “If somebody gets placed on unpaid leave, what happens to health insurance? I went through the county policy and a couple of other entities, and they all have the unpaid designation there.
“Our situation has changed because we have got a lot of new people and a lot of different things going on within the new people. I almost had to actually bring this up to you a couple of months ago and it ended up working out for medical leaves.”
Fitzcharles also raised the possibility of allowing employees to take unpaid time off for community service work, particularly within the village.
“One thing that we experienced as a county is the shortage of volunteers,” said Fitzcharles. “One of the initiatives that we’ve talked a lot about over the last couple of years is the Light Up Navajo Program which is where your electric crews sign up and they go to New Mexico and help to set electrical services in territories where there is no electric power.
“This is a project that AMP (American Municipal Power) and APPA (American Public Power Association) have been working on for a long time.”
She then added, “The thought is at some point, when the electric department gets to a certain place within their skill set and training, that we would look at possibly not this summer, but maybe next summer opening an opportunity for that. But the same goes for sometimes things locally.”
Jeremy Wright, an electrical line worker for the village, attended the meeting and spoke about his desire to help others but said he is reluctant to use personal time off for mission work, as that time would otherwise be spent with his family.
“We were talking one day about community service, and he asked me, ‘If I went out and did some sort of local mission, do you have an unpaid status?’ “ Fitzcharles said.
Wright then said, “God’s been good to me, and I just like sharing it, and I’ve developed a good relationship with a lot of people when I do mission work. My passion is for helping people.”
The committee members and Mayor Robert Day expressed support for the idea, provided the details could be worked out so it would not cost the village and departments would remain adequately staffed.