Out-of-scope staff at city hall who cover another employee’s vacation or leave usually receive a temporary 20-per-cent pay bump, but an updated policy will decrease that number to eight per cent.
The human resources department reviews its policies regularly to ensure they remain current, and during a recent review of the out-of-scope temporary assignment policy, the department determined updates were needed to address certain issues.
Out-of-scope staff are generally the formally appointed leaders at city hall, including the strategic leadership team, managers, and supervisors.
HR staff last reviewed the policy in 2019, and while there have been no recent major legislative or procedural changes, they did identify an issue with the pay rate.
The department brought the updated out-of-scope temporary assignment policy to city council’s Aug. 14 regular meeting, with council unanimously passing the updated document.
HR director T.J. Karwandy explained that giving out-of-scope employees a temporary pay bump of 20 per cent can create issues because staff typically receive a pay increase of five to 10 per cent when accepting a permanent higher-level position.
“Having a salary increase that is two to three times greater for a temporary assignment than for a permanent assignment is illogical and creates a disincentive for employees who temporarily perform higher duties to pursue the position permanently,” he said.
An eight-per-cent pay bump for temporarily covering another employee’s vacation or leave is more in line with city hall’s regular pay raises and that of jurisdictions, Karwandy added.
Another change to the policy is including a maximum time for an out-of-scope employee to cover another colleague’s vacation or leave, a council report said.
The current policy has an 11-working-day minimum but no maximum, so the revisions clarify that the temporary performance of higher duties is for short periods and assignments longer than 90 days are handled through temporary reclassification or appointment.
The updated policy also contains minor changes to language to clarify and simplify the document.
Reducing the pay rate of temporary performance of higher duties to eight per cent from 20 per cent will save roughly $7,250, the report added. However, city hall does not frequently use the out-of-scope temporary assignment; since 2022, the municipality has paid $18,135 for out-of-scope temporary coverage duties.
“It’s very unusual that we get a request to reduce a salary line in anybody’s budget,” chuckled Coun. Heather Eby. “So I really appreciate that you and your staff went over the policy and however that came to be that you found that this really didn’t make sense … .”
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Aug. 28.
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