City of Moose Jaw employees experienced fewer injuries during the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same time in 2019, a decline the city manager attributes to better internal communication.
From January to March this year, 15 employees injured themselves on the job, including seven slip and falls, four incidents of overexertion, three incidents of something striking staff, and one employee being burned, according to the first-quarter report of city hall activities that city council received recently.
In comparison, there were 20 incidents of injured employees during Q1 of 2019.
The fact most of the numbers are down is promising since it shows how much work the senior leadership team has done, city manager Jim Puffalt said. Senior leadership held a meeting in January to discuss safety and how city hall wanted to take a more focused approach with this issue.
Injury statistics
Other injury statistics show, for this quarter compared to Q1 2019:
- Medical aid: seven / four incidents
- Lost time: three / two incidents
- Days lost: more than 53, some due to layoffs related to COVID-19 / 10
- Motor vehicle incidents: five / 11 incidents
- Property damage that city employees caused: one / 14 incidents
- Dangerous occurrence: two / two incidents
Human Resources
The human resources department laid off 35 people in March since the municipality had to close many buildings due to the pandemic, Puffalt explained, while city hall redeployed permanent staff to other departments and duties.
“It was not something (staff layoffs) we wanted to do, but we can’t be open and we can’t keep staff,” he added. “We had to divert staff from our summer programs. Parks and recreation did a great job. We got work done on the Kinsmen pool. That allows us, when we reopen, for that facility to be ready to go.”
City hall hired a consultant to evaluate out-of-scope positions and compensation, said Coun. Brian Swanson. He wondered when the consultant planned to submit a report.
Human Resources has not completed it yet — it put the project on hold due to the pandemic — but will likely have it finished in six weeks, explained HR director Al Bromley. The department is looking at a new framework to evaluate those types of positions. However, many out-of-scope positions had to be re-worked since there were changes in the engineering and public works departments.
Council remuneration
A committee is looking at how much council should be paid, Swanson pointed out. He wondered when city administration expected that committee to provide a report on remuneration.
That report should come to council during the June 29 meeting, said city clerk Myron Gulka-Tiechko.
According to the city clerk’s first-quarter report, the council remuneration committee held an open house in January for the public to provide feedback about how much council should be paid. There was also an online survey that saw more than 400 people respond. The committee then met in March to review the results of that survey.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, June 15.
