Title
Chief Administrative Office and Human Resources recommending the Board of Supervisors authorize the Chief Administrative Officer to increase vacation accrual caps up to 360 hours for staff working directly on the County’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Body
DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
The County’s labor agreements with represented employees and the Salary & Benefit Resolution for Unrepresented Employees provide for vacation accrual caps. Generally, an employee accrues vacation hours each pay period, based on an employee’s time in service. Once an employee reaches the applicable cap, however, no additional hours may be accrued. Under certain circumstances, such as the implementation of the FENIX system, the Board has authorized increasing accrual caps for employees doing critical work for the benefit of the County and the public.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, County staff in several departments are working in various capacities to support the County’s response. Given the uncertain duration of the County’s response efforts, it is possible that employees will not be able to take time off because of the critical nature of their duties and will reach their vacation accrual caps. In recognition of this, it is recommended that staff who may hit the vacation accrual cap as a result of their work on the response effort be allowed to accrue additional vacation time to be taken at a later date. The accrual cap for most employees is 320 hours. The recommendation is to increase the cap to 360 hours for specified employees. A request for increased accruals would have to be submitted by the employee’s department head and approved by the Chief Administrative Officer.
ALTERNATIVES
The Board could choose not to grant additional vacation accrual. Employees who reach the cap and are not able to take time off due to the critical nature of their work on the COVID-19 response would receive no additional benefit.
PRIOR BOARD ACTION
N/A
OTHER DEPARTMENT / AGENCY INVOL...
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