Several employees appeared before Chattanooga City Council on Tuesday to protest plans to convert 48 Chattanooga workers from weekly to biweekly payroll, which would bring them in line with the pay schedule for the rest of the city's workforce.
"We continue to have a conversation about how we can make it happen with the least impact to employees," Jason Brown, an organizer for the Service Employees International Union who does not work for the city, told council members "Despite the fact that our simple request is that it does not happen, and that's the easiest fix from our perspective."
During the meeting, a resolution to approve $750 bonuses for those 48 city workers failed due to lack of a second. The proposed one-time funding resulted from negotiations between the Service Employees International Union, which works on behalf of city employees, and Mayor Tim Kelly's office, according to Chattanooga Chief Finance Officer Brent Goldberg.
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On a weekly cycle, employees are paid for one week of work at a time. On a biweekly schedule, it's two weeks.
The city is planning to move forward with the conversion Sept. 8. Goldberg said officials met with the affected employees Aug. 22 to present three options for them to bridge the gap. A deadline to choose an option was initially set for Aug. 26 but was ultimately extended to Wednesday.
Those three choices were: Delay pay over two pay periods and begin their biweekly amount Oct. 6; advance 80 hours of leave over two pay periods and begin their biweekly amount Sept. 8; or advance 80 hours, pay back their leave over 10 pay periods and begin their biweekly paychecks Sept. 8.
Employees receive the equivalent hourly rate of their accrued time off when they leave, which Goldberg said can be a large amount for workers. Advancing their accrued paid time off would allow employees to receive money upfront to help with the transition to a new pay schedule.
However, Brown said employees are still unclear about their precise options.
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"I don't think our members and employees left with a good understanding of what their options were," Brown told council members.
Chief of Staff Joda Thongnopnua said the city has been making efforts to convert employees to a biweekly schedule as far back as Mayor Ron Littlefield's administration, which lasted from 2005-13.
Ellis Smith, director of special projects in the mayor's office, said in a phone interview before the meeting that continuing to pay workers on a weekly basis forces the city to run an additional, special payroll every other week. That costs staff about 30 extra hours of work.
"It's just something that that staff time could be better spent taking care of customer service needs, doing proactive tasks around the office to continue to bring Chattanooga up to a best practice standard," he said.
Goldberg said the city presented the same options to workers 18 years ago, when most city employees were converted to biweekly pay.
"The mayor at the time allowed a relatively small group of employees to not convert to biweekly," Goldberg said, an estimate of 400 that since dwindled to 48. "We're just trying to get everyone on the same pay cycle to be as efficient as we possibly can."
Contact David Floyd at dfloyd@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6249. Follow him on Twitter @flavid_doyd.