NV cultivates four-day faideral ‘HEY, North Vancouver City foik: how does a four-day work week sound? Al! right! Sorry, it’s not fer you; it’s for your municipal hall workers. As reported in an earlier Ripping Yarns, the four-day ee has already been ed into the city’s garbage collection sector, where, not surprisingly, municipal staff have turned up positive results. A staff report to council - earlier this year stated that the new three-man garbage crew setup working a com- pressed week had saved the city over $45,000 in parbage collection efficiencies 1 in 1999 over 1998, “Whether those savings were directly ‘attributable to three-man: crews or com- : pressed weeks is open to lebate. Other factors such as the use of a larger gatbage truck and a stricter residen- tial garbage [limit that teduced the aumber of cans city residents are allowed to leave for curbside pickup might also have had some- - ching toda’ with those sav- “It’s one of the plums on ¢ table in current contract “negotiations with the - | Canadian Union of Public © foi Empl loyees (CUPE). . ord has it that the plum s already in. CUPE hands: Despite’ what city.hall * aintains in its garbage col-_, *. and staff retention — along “with its liabilities. ‘experiment, doubts ersist among skeptics over . » the value of the compressed work week, especially as it. relates to municipal cus- tomers — you, me and tax- payers all. Vancouver City, for exam- ple, pulled the plug last year on its extended compressed work week experiment. CUPE representatives would have the public believe that the decision was grounded in anti-employee, anti-family, Industria Revolution sensibilities run amok at city hall. One dad lamented in the d:ily press that be would heaceforth be forced to miss “Dau’s Day” with his chil- dren because city hall, and ultimately. society itself, just didn’t seem to care any- ' more, But that’s far from the ' ‘€ase.. ‘Vancouver City’s decision .was grounded in operational realities. . The main one being that city hall’s compressed week did not jive with the rest of the business world, which has stuck doggedly to the five-day regimen. A report from Vancouver City’s manager examined the compressed wecek’s benefits — initial employce morale boost, initial reduction in absenteeism, recruitment: For Free Totisiate 922-4975 or mate call’ Drapery Labour $14.95 per pane} lined. ow bow. The overwhelming con- sensus: the liabilities out- weighed the benefits. And Vancouver's was no short-term assessment ¢ftier. The four-day work week had been in place at Vancouver City hall since 1976, when it was brought in to reduce traffic conges- tion. The thinking back then being that staff travelling on fewer days during off-rush- hour times would help unclog city roads. It would, reasoned °70s idealists, set an example for other enlightened city employers to follow. Alas, not many other employers were that impressed with the four-day deal. More impressed, howev- er, were ather employees. Thus the four-day push in North Vancouver City. Under Vancouver's com- pressed week, 1,100 of the municipality’s 8, 500 empiv;- ces worked four 8.33-hour days; 150 of the 1,100 worked a medified nine- day fortnight schedule because of operational complications in their department’s result- ing from the four-day weck. ‘The experiment began with much enthusiasm — Most of that generated by municipal employees who took an immediate shine to ‘three-day weekends. Good for employce morale, no doubt. But not so good for the ‘morale of thase trying to do business through and with city hall. According to the city manager’s report, the com- pressed week from the out- set resulted in delays in pro- ’ viding, customer service, both internally aed external- {y; unanticipated costs for employe ce leaves; and diffi- culties in communicating with staff within and between departments. The compressed week, concluded the city manager: “has significant implications for the service level that the city can provide the public. The business community that deals with the city for the most part works five days a week. The inability to deal with key staff and con- duct business five days per week has been identified as a significant issue. Even inter- nally, meetungs involving a number of staff can only be scheduied effectively three days per week. Internal ser- vices suffer the same ‘cus- tomer service’ problems.” Sounds like a can of worms best left unopened. After all there’s no traffic congestion problem at North Vancouver City hall. And the last time I checked, North Shore busi- nesses still worked five, if not more, days er week. Meanwhile ; Vancouver City employee's Jament over society not car- ing anymore might draw tears from some quarters but it’s drivel at heart. Society cares deeply. It cares deeply that the ‘job of public employees is being done for the benefit of the taxpayers those employ- - ees are paid to serve. Not the reverse. North Vancouver City council needs to consider Vancouver City’s compressed - work week experience care- fully before embarking on any misguided experiment on this side of the inlet. —trenshaw@nsnews.com The Pro Nova "Ensemble - with guestartiss fohn Duputs(piano) ina SPECIAL PIANO CONCERT ~~ featuring works by. Hayén Rimsky-Korsakov, Liadov, Borodin, Glazunov, Schumann Friday, May 26, 7:30 pm > Me Seymour United Church, North Van. © Ensemble members are Autora Felde (violin), Sandra Fiddes (violin), - Audrey Nodwell (cello), Hans-Karl Pilez (viola) _ ADMISSION Nby¢ donation a _ Wine of wt wine on-premise before May 31 and RACK ir WINEMAK! NG RE FREE $30, _ Patk & Tilford Centre 990-7225 (RACK) © ny other onal offer. de cash val Bela. Ribbon North Shore Association | “z, for the Menially Handicapped A Making Opportunities Ha, s Happen . Register your team | Raise your | pledges — Jump in the limo on May .. -2ath..and LOS rem tte | MeDonlis Restarts of Canada itd. Top 40 Compact Disc Jockeys 2-2-5: :