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Road workers fight to keep schedule
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET
© St. Petersburg Times, INVERNESS -- Saying the new schedule will be a burden to employees and more costly to county government, 51 workers in the road maintenance division have petitioned the county to let them keep their old hours. For years, crews have logged their 40 hours each week by working 10 hours a day, Monday through Thursday. Many used their Fridays off to go to doctors' appointments, look after their children or work a second job to make ends meet. Starting in January, workers throughout the Department of Public Works will move to a five-day schedule with eight-hour workdays. The shift will affect about 200 employees from road maintenance, county utilities, the landfill, facilities maintenance, fleet management and aquatic services. Assistant County Administrator Ken Saunders said the schedule change will mean greater efficiency. Employees will be less fatigued working eight-hour days instead of 10-hour days, and crews will be able to respond to calls five days a week instead of four, he said. "I think the public expectation is that office hours and work tasks be performed Monday through Friday," Saunders said. "This gives us an extra day of interaction with citizens, and state and federal agencies." Saunders said he decided on the schedule change after receiving memos in August from then-Aquatic Services director Tom Dick, Maintenance Operations director Ernie Hutman and Road Maintenance director Larry Brock endorsing the long-debated concept. But the majority of road maintenance workers, 51 of about 60, signed a letter this week protesting the change and said the shift will cost the county for additional fuel and setup costs for an extra day each week. Terry Sponholz, a county road grader for 23 years, said the road crews spend an hour in the morning checking equipment, traveling to the work site, setting up signs and preparing the site. Another hour is spent each evening securing the site, refueling the trucks and filling out paperwork, he said. Add another work day to the week, and that's two more hours spent on setup and take-down tasks, not actual work, Sponholz said. "It's nonproductive," said Sponholz, who authored the protest letter that was sent Friday to all five county commissioners, Gov. Jeb Bush, U.S. Rep. Karen Thurman and the state's Public Employees Relations Commission. But Saunders said the county will use "better planning" under the new schedule to cut down on setup and take-down times. "I will make it more efficient," Saunders said, without offering specifics. The road maintenance workers offered a compromise: If the county wants five-day coverage, let some crews work Monday through Thursday and others Tuesday through Friday. The county rejected the offer. "The support team, the people who take care of the vehicles, would have to do that too," Saunders said. "I can't split them up because we need all mechanics there at the same time." "All of these divisions are interactive," he added. "It would be almost impossible" to have workers on different schedules. The new schedule will be a hardship to county employees who will have to pay for an extra day of day care or forfeit the second job that helps pay the bills, Sponholz said. He uses his Fridays for doctors' appointments, hair cuts, stints at the volunteer firefighter station in Hernando and quality time with his 13-year-old daughter, Katrina. "The four-day work week was a blessing to a lot of people," Sponholz said. "It's the reason I took this job." Saunders said the crews received word of the schedule change Oct. 1 so they would have "ample time to change their lifestyle." "We're not treating them any differently than the regular 8-to-5 employees that work for the county," he said. Road workers' petitionEditor's Note: This letter was drafted by Terry Sponholz, a road grader operator for the county's road maintenance division, and included the signatures of 50 of his co-workers. To the Citizens of Citrus County:I'm writing to ask your help as well as to tell you what is going on in your county. I'm using my right as an American citizen of this great country of ours that I and our forefathers have protected and fought for, freedom of speech and press. I have worked for the county for 23 years in the Road Maintenance Division. We have worked four 10-hour days (from Monday through Thursday) for 27 years. It has proven to be a great work week for the county and the employees. This has saved the taxpayers money as well as been good for the employees. It lets the employees get more work done during the week by less set-up time and down time, which cost you, the taxpayer, less money. It also helped the employees by letting them schedule doctor appointments and do their business on Fridays, so they won't have to take off or take sick time off to get it done. The county administration is going to change our work week to a (five eight-hour-day) week on the 1st of January. Which is going to cost more to you and the employees? With the budget cuts that we have been reading about in the paper and how we all should be doing our part on saving money, we are going to change and cost more. We the employees have shown the county on paper how this is going to cost more. What used to take eight hours a week (based on two hours a day) for set up, truck inspection, take down and (securing the site) will now take 10 hours a week, not including the money we spend in employees hours. What used to be 640 employee hours per week will be 800. The way you get this figure is if you have 80 employees and you multiply this by two (hours), then by four days a week, compared to 80 multiplied by two (hours), then by five (days). This also does not include vehicle and equipment servicing that was done on Fridays when the crews were off, which now will have to be done while they are working, which means equipment down time and employee time. This also does not include what they are doing to the employees by making them drive another day to work, and if they have kids to put them in child care. The county has already taken their 2.4 percent cost of living (salary adjustments) away from the employees to save money and NOW we are going to cost them, the employees, more out of their pocket money for the change that affects their entire families. The county's reasoning for the change was, "they need more coverage on Fridays in case of emergencies," they wanted to get the employees out of the heat of the day so they didn't get so fatigued, and payroll wouldn't have to keep up with both schedules. Well, we wanted to try and help with their concerns and came up with some ideas. We asked about splitting crews so the county could be covered 50 hours a week instead of 40, of course they said no. We, the employees, were not concerned about the heat for we are used to it. Well, then we knew they were not going to change their minds. So we, the county employees, thought maybe they would go with a time schedule of 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., this way we could still make appointments so we would not have to take time off from work, but they still said no. We, the employees, are asking you, the citizens, for help. We would like you to call your commissioners and express your opinion. Let them know what you think, maybe we can change their minds on how things are done. It's your money, too. Thank you, Your County Employees P.S. Just a word or two for you to think about: If it's not broke, why fix it.
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