COSTA MESA : Part-Time Workers’ Hours to Be Pared

Some part-time municipal workers will soon see their hours cut because of a longstanding agreement between the city and the state retirement fund that limits the number of hours for such workers.

Beginning July 1, employees classified as part time will not be allowed to exceed 19.5 hours per week, or 1,000 hours annually.

“This has been a policy of the city for several years, but only recently it came to our attention that part-timers had been working in excess of that,” City Manager Allan L. Roeder said.

Roeder has instructed city departments to scale back their part-time workers’ hours so they don’t exceed the limit before the end of the current fiscal year.

The move will affect about 55 workers, mostly in recreation services and park and golf course maintenance, Personnel Director Steve Hayman said. The city employs an average of 212 part-time employees a year, Hayman said.

A part-time worker at the Costa Mesa Golf Course said he will have to find another job to make up for the lost hours. Although part-time employees there are normally scheduled for three six-hour shifts a week, they also fill in when other workers are sick or on vacation.

“It’s been good,” said the worker, who declined to give his name. “Most of the people here are either in junior college or senior citizens, so the extra hours help.”

When the new fiscal year begins July 1, the payroll system will automatically alert the part-time workers and their supervisors when the limit is approaching, Hayman said.

The rule is the result of a contractual agreement with the state Public Employees Retirement System, which stipulates that both employer and employee must contribute to the employee’s retirement fund after the employee has worked 1,000 hours in a year, Roeder said.