Chattanooga City Councilman Chip Henderson listens during a council meeting Tuesday, July 7, 2015, in Chattanooga.Chattanooga workers may be OK with the majority of a new proposed employee handbook. But the comprehensive rule set may be held up by another argument. And it's a debate that's been heard before.
City employees and union representatives said Tuesday the proposed handbook is a good place to start, although they have a list of concerns they want addressed in the next six months.
But City Councilman Chip Henderson wants to make another effort to change language in a much-debated anti-harassment rule, which unanimously passed the council on July 22.
On Tuesday, Henderson said he will soon suggest the city adopt language verbatim from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which protects employees from harassment or discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin or sex - but not sexual orientation or gender identity.
"What I would like to do is substitute the federal EEOC with what's written [in city code] right now," Henderson said. "I think this ought to suffice for city code."
Councilman Chris Anderson, who co-sponsored the anti-harassment ordinance that prohibits discrimination or harassment against gay or transgender city employees, said Henderson is rehashing the argument, and the federal rules he's citing have been broadened by administrative rules and court rulings.
"The document he's carrying around is obsolete," Anderson said. "This council has said it wants to protect all its employees from harassment and bullying, and I don't know why he wants to fight that battle again."
In fact, both council members are right.
The EEOC says even though sexual orientation and gender identity aren't spelled out in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, they are covered by the law.
"The [EEOC], consistent with case law from the Supreme Court and other courts, interprets the statute's sex discrimination provision as prohibiting discrimination against employees on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity," according to the commission's website.
And city workers aren't making any effort to see the current discrimination language changed.
Sharron Pryor, a city employee, addressed the City Council's human resources committee Tuesday to let council members know workers were OK with them approving the new rules as written. They have talked with the mayor's office and reached an accord, she said.
"We discussed our most important points and discovered that we were not that far apart," Pryor said. "We agreed to continue to meet on these 11 points and come back to council no later than six months from now."
Those points include changes to proposed holiday overtime, on-call and temporary pay rules. Workers want to be able to combine time of lunch breaks with other 15-minute breaks throughout the day. They are asking for more doctor choices when they are injured on duty. And employees are asking that workers arrested for serious crimes (those greater than misdemeanors) are able to stay on the job unless convicted. Now such workers are put on administrative leave and then fired if their cases aren't dismissed within six months.
City Chief Operating Office Brent Goldberg said Tuesday the administration will keep working on those items and come back to the council to address possible changes.
Workers, the Service Employees International Union and the administration have worked for months developing the citywide handbook for all employees, which will replace all current rules historically written into city code.
But in recent weeks, some workers have complained that they are being left out of the end of the process - the part when the City Council removes employee rules from code and puts employee policy in the hands of Mayor Andy Berke's office.
Councilman Moses Freeman, who leads the personnel committee, said last week the workers would have their day Tuesday.
And Kate Sheets, organizer for the SEIU, said the union has the ability to represent all non-sworn city workers, meaning those who are not police or firefighters.
City Human Resource Director Todd Dockery said the city has about 1,800 such employees, and about 290 of them are declared union members.
Freeman said Tuesday a first-reading vote on the ordinance to strike the rules from city code would be held next week. The second reading will be on Aug. 25. The council will also consider a resolution adopting the new rules next week.
If the ordinances pass, and the resolution is adopted, the employee handbook rules will go into effect on Sept. 8.
Contact staff writer Louie Brog don at lbrogdon@timesfreepress.com, @glbrogdoniv on Twitter or at 423-757-6481.