Belvedere Citizen / Eastside Journal, Number 25, 18 June 1980 — City to experiment with four-day week [ARTICLE]

City to experiment with four-day week

The city will soon shift as many as possible of its 37,000 employees to a fourday, 10-hour work week on a trial basis to determine if fhe move will increase productivity and provide longer hours of service to the public. The City Council on a 10-1 vote last Thursday adopted the recommendation of its Personnel and Labor Relations Committee for the massive change. Councilman Art Snyder, chairman of the committee, said the four-day week is in compliance with a

council-approved Air Quality management Plan which calls for a flexible working schedule. Not all of the 37,000 city employees will shift to a foud-day week. Firefighters, who work a 24 hour on, 24 hour off shift will be exempt and police officials have expressed .reservations about the plan. EXEMPTIONS Other exemptions are council members, who must meet five days a week under city charter requirements, other elected.

officials and their staffs. Also remaining on a fiveday week will be department heads and their assistants, the city administrative officer, chief legislative analyst and the Board of Public Works. Lone vote against the four-day week cast by Councilman Gil Lindsay who predicted that city offices would be virtually deserted on Mondays and Fridays as employees leave their three-day weekends. Skepticism was also voiced by Councilman Hal Bemson, who left the council chambers before the vote was taken. He said the change would be perceived by the public as’ further cuts in city services, a result of Proposition 13, But supporters of the plan claimed that the move would result in higher employee productivity, conservation of energy. Increased service to the public and reduced smog because city workers would make one few trip to city hall each week. MORE DRIVING Lindsay and others, however, said workers would probably drive more on their extra day off as they escape the , city on three-day weekends. Snyder agreed that was a possibility but said It was offset by other advantages, such as two more hours of service to residents at City public counters. City departments will have the option of a tourday work .' week or a schedule calling for 80 hours of work in a nine day period. Managers who believe their departments cannot operate under either plan must file a request for ane exemption with the City Council. Departments will have six months to prepare for the shift and the experiment will operate for 18 months. It is expected that exentptions will be granted to the department of water and power and the airport and harbor departments.