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Council pushes to accelerate personnel-policy fixes after employees raise overtime, grievance concerns
Summary
Council members agreed to accelerate review of the 2024 personnel policy, prioritizing overtime calculations, vacation accruals, and the grievance process after employees and residents raised concerns that recent changes moved nonunion staff to at-will status and removed grievance protections.
Mayor Andrew Touchette told the council on Oct. 20 that the personnel policy passed in 2024 contains items that have created operational concerns for department heads and employees. He proposed an accelerated schedule to identify and address the most urgent issues and to return to the council with suggested fixes by Nov. 3.
Council members and public commenters said the most pressing concerns are how overtime is calculated for nonunion employees, vacation accrual rules, and the grievance policy. Resident speakers warned that the 2024 changes shifted some employees from "for-cause" termination to "at-will" status and removed grievance procedures, which they said has produced pay and overtime disparities between union and nonunion staff.
Council member Kevin Charbonneau and the mayor agreed to meet with other members and relevant staff this week to compile questions and proposed amendments; the council intends to take action or propose amendments at the upcoming special meeting or the Nov. 3 session. The council also discussed whether temporarily reverting to the old policy is advisable, but no formal action to re-adopt prior policy was taken at the meeting.
Next steps: the mayor and council members will meet with staff and interested employees this week to draft targeted changes; the council aims to take formal action no later than Nov. 3 to remedy the most urgent problems.
