Plan to Trim City Workweek to Four Days Hits a Snag

The city’s plan to close City Hall on Fridays by putting employees on a 36-hour workweek has hit a snag.

Interim City Administrator Lloyd Wood said the city still hopes to inaugurate the new setup Feb. 1, but first a misunderstanding with the employee union involving overtime pay must be cleared up.

The City Council on Monday delayed taking action on a proposed contract between the city and the Pomona Employees Assn. that would have shortened the 40-hour workweek for most employees by four hours. The agreement called for the city to pay employees the same amount for 36 hours that it had previously paid for 40.

Wood said the misunderstanding concerns pay rates. Although the city planned to adjust the rates upward so that workers would receive the same pay for working fewer hours, Wood said, the city never intended to make the higher rates the basis for overtime pay.

“We have to correct that glitch,” he said.

Negotiators for the city and the union will meet at 1:30 p.m. today to try to resolve the problem.

Tom Ramsey, chief union negotiator, said the union asked city officials to withdraw the contract from the City Council agenda Monday after discovering that city management and employees were interpreting the terms differently.

Ramsey said the differences are significant enough to jeopardize the agreement, but added, “I don’t want to be too much of an alarmist. It’s something I hope we can resolve.”

Browning E. Allen III, assistant city administrator and personnel director, said he hopes the contract will be ready for council approval by its next meeting, Jan. 25.

Meanwhile, the city has begun notifying the public that the four-day workweek will take effect Feb. 1 and that City Hall will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday and closed on Fridays. Wood said the city decided to continue posting the new hours in anticipation that the labor contract problem will be resolved.