By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Hutchinson City Council directed Human Resources Director Tom Sanders to go back to another negotiating session with the union representing the city's service employees after the members voted down the latest contract this past Thursday.
Esau Freeman with the local chapter of the Service Employees International Union said the main issue is being able to leave early if the employee has worked extra hours early in the work week, or choose not to if they want overtime. Right now, it is at management discretion.
"We counter proposed this that if it's at the discretion of the employees, we'd be all for it, because I think it's a benefit for the employees," Freeman said. "A lot of them say, gosh, I had to work, we had a main break at 2:00 on Wednesday, so they didn't get it fixed until 6:00 and they'd love to take off early on Friday. We'd be all for it at the discretion of the employee, but then again, the other guy on his crew missed his kid's concert at the school because he was working that main break until 6:00. He feels he should be compensated, and that shouldn't just be straight time that he had to work on the main break, he should be able to get that overtime that he stayed."
Freeman said 95 percent of dues paying members voted against the latest offer, with 100 percent of non-members who were willing to be polled also against the offer.
Another issue that has been raised is that some employees are saying their management is not flexible with breaks. City Manager Jeff Cantrell said, speaking generally, that isn't the case, but it has been practice not to set breaks and the hope is that employees will see that as a positive.
"What I don't want to do is to say, let's get rid of all this ambiguity and say everyone start at 8 and leave at 5," Cantrell said. "Here's your guaranteed lunch, want a break, fine, you've got it. We don't want to be that inflexible. We want people to be able to bail out at 3:00 on a Friday if that's part of the quality of life and the very essence of the position and the work that people want to pursue. I don't think they're going to get that at Menards. I don't think they're going to get that at some of the other places paying $19 or $20 an hour."
The goal is to continue to offer this flexibility in hopes that it will help with retention where the city may not be able to keep up with inflation in the area of straight compensation. Right now, any merit raises for the coming year are on hold until the contract is passed by the union.