Bank would provide medical leave hours for employees in need
By Kellen Olshefski
SLN Staff
After numerous discussions at the committee level, the City of Elkhorn Common Council voted June 6 in favor of creating a medical leave bank for employees.
In a Human Resources Committee meeting prior to the June 6 Common Council meeting, City Administrator Sam Tapson said the committee has been working on the medical leave bank for quite some time and through the various changes he’s made, he’s been looking to find a happy medium.
The communal medical leave bank approved creates a bank where unused paid-time-off hours from employees who have already exceeded the cap of their own personal medical leave banks would be rolled into at the end of the year.
The communal bank would then provide much needed time off to, for example, newer employees who might not have the time-off needed in the instance of a family medical emergency. Additionally, under the plan, these employees would be required to use up all of their own leave before dipping into the communal bank.
Tapson asked the committee to make a motion one way or another to move the program forward to the full council for discussion, noting either the city leaves the program as it is or adjusts it to make it a more viable program.
Tapson has made numerous changes to the program, including instituting a cap on the overall bank and limiting how many hours could be taken from the 2015 year to help kick start the bank. Likewise, Tapson said per the request of the committee, has included provisions creating a tiered structure that limit how much an employee can take from the bank based on years of service.
Committee Chairman Tom Myrin said Monday night his only concern with the program as it stood was taking all of the unused hours from 2015, about 450 hours, asking if the committee would be willing to only take half of the hours.
Tapson noted the program was once recommended to the council for approval with the full unused hours from 2015.
Alderman Scott McClory said he was in favor of the program as it stood before, though said if it took reducing the hours taken from 2015 by half was what it would take to get it done, he would support it.
Likewise, Alderman Bruce Lechner said he liked what was proposed before and he was also in favor of what was proposed June 6.
“Yeah, lets get this done and get it to council,” he said.
A motion to recommend approval of the program to the council, reducing the invested hours from 2015 by half, was made by Myrin and seconded by McClory. The motion passed at the committee level 3-0.
The full council later in the evening approved the committee’s recommendation with a 6-0 vote.
