Welfare, Job Offices Go to 4-Day Week : Environment: The Simi Valley Police Department will also switch schedules to help reduce air pollution and improve job efficiency.

Ventura County welfare and job-training offices will be joined by the Simi Valley Police Department this week in switching over to a four-day workweek, which officials hope will cut air pollution and improve job efficiency.

Beginning today, five welfare offices in Ventura, Oxnard, Simi Valley and Santa Paula will be closed Mondays as part of a one-year pilot program, officials said. Three job-training offices in Ventura, Oxnard and Simi Valley will also close one day a week.

County welfare offices will now be open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Fridays instead of 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Hours at the job-training offices will remain unchanged--8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The new work schedule, approved by the Board of Supervisors in August, is voluntary.

Barbara Fitzgerald, chief deputy of the Public Social Services Agency, said about 500 of the agency’s 800 employees have chosen to participate in the pilot program, in which employees work four 10-hour days. She said Mondays are traditionally light days, and she does not expect the new office hours to cause any major inconveniences for the public.

“If clients need emergency services, we will be available,” she said, adding that staff workers will be in on Mondays to answer phones.

Glenda Siegel, district manager of the county welfare office in Simi Valley, said all but 10 of her 54 employees were taking part in the condensed workweek program.

“We have quite a few workers who live in Los Angeles, so this will cut out a whole trip for them,” she said.

The new office schedules were adopted to help the Public Social Services Agency comply with the county’s so-called Rule 210, which requires government agencies and large companies to reduce commuting and promote car-pooling. The new schedule will be evaluated by county officials after one year to determine if it should be continued.

Simi Valley police officials said that in addition to helping the city comply with the new air pollution rules, the Police Department’s four-day workweek will help reduce overtime.

“There are a lot of benefits to it,” Capt. Jerry Boyce said. “Not only will it help reduce air pollution, but it will improve employee morale by giving officers more free time.”

Boyce said the police union had requested a study of a four-day workweek as part of its 1989 contract with the city.

“There’s a lot of jubilation in the uniform division,” he said of the city’s decision to move ahead with the plan.

Under the new schedule, 65 of the city’s 105 officers will work four 10-hour days, Boyce said. Detectives and administrators, including Police Chief Paul Miller, will work nine-hour shifts, enabling them to take off one extra day every two weeks.

The Ventura Police Department is the only law enforcement agency in the county that has a four-day workweek for its officers. Officials said that the 125-officer department has had an alternate work schedule for more than 10 years and that it has worked well.

Meanwhile, Thousand Oaks has proposed to put city workers on a four-day workweek to comply with the county’s new air-pollution rules. The plan, which has not been given final approval, would require that City Hall be shut down on Fridays.

About 11% of the county’s more than 700 businesses with 50 or more employees offer a compressed workweek, according to a 1990 survey by Commuter Transportation Services of Los Angeles.