TGIF – “Thank God It’s Friday!” For whom is that a happy cry? Not the residents of Teaneck who frequently try to reach Municipal Building staff to conduct town business on a Friday. Many key personnel seem to be absent. What’s going on?
Note: In preparation for the weekend work on Teaneck Voices, published at 8 am on Monday mornings, the co-editors reach out to Municipal Building staff on Fridays to check accuracy, seek confirmation of information, and learn new developments. We find that many are not working on Fridays.
Teaneck Voices opines that the apparent skeleton crew on Fridays at the Municipal Building is a vestige of the ill-conceived decision in 2010 to close the Municipal Building on Fridays. What happened back then?
In 2009, the belief of a majority of council members was that municipal employees were suffering from low morale. That belief led to the hiring of a new Town Manager, and brainstorming among the council members on ways to lift employee morale. One then-council member cited research (conducted on a factory floor) that showed that absenteeism decreased and safety increased when workers were given a 4-day work week. The fact that municipal employees were service providers and not machine operators was not considered relevant.
A subcommittee of 3 council members was appointed to study the issue and make a recommendation to the full council. Full disclosure: One Teaneck Voices co-editor was a then-council member and was appointed to the subcommittee. In those days subcommittees were “ad hoc,” appointed to deal with a specific issue out of the public eye and make a recommendation to the full council. The subcommittee would vote on the recommendation and a majority of 2 determined the recommendation to Council.
The subcommittee met and by a vote of 2 to 1 recommended that all Municipal Building employees would work Mondays through Thursdays and the Municipal Building would be closed on Fridays. A survey was conducted by the Manager with announced results that 70% of the residents favored the 4-day work week. Later it was discovered that the total number of residents surveyed was 11 (eleven) – 7 pro and 4 con.
On August 17, 2010, the 4-day work week for Municipal Building employees went into effect. Union contracts were rewritten to reflect the new weekly structure and many employees found Friday jobs to supplement their income. For the Municipal Building employees, it was a satisfying outcome. For many town residents, it was an upsetting (and occasionally costly) outcome.
Following 4 years of debate between AFSCME Local 820 and some councilmembers (“I’m a public employee,” Councilmember Lizette Parker said. “I believe that public services should be offered 5 days a week.”) and town residents (Patch, April 4, 2012), the town reopened the Municipal Building on Fridays on Monday, January 6, 2014. However, a deal was struck that allowed most Municipal Building employees staggered 4-day work weeks. So while the Municipal Building was opened 5 days a week, it was a guess who would be at work on any given day. And Fridays operated with a skeleton crew. Many employees still took Fridays off for varied reasons: 3-day weekends, changed childcare schedules, and Friday jobs.
IS THAT WHERE WE ARE NOW? Teaneck Voices requests that the Township publish a detailed schedule of working days and hours of every Municipal Building employee, and assurance that each employee has agreed to serve at those published times. Teaneck residents deserve no less.
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