New Town to review city employee manual
By Jerry W. Kram
Confusion over the City of New Town’s employee handbook will lead to a revised edition of the handbook.
Several city employees asked to meet with the city council because of confusion over how sick time was being calculated for city workers. The city employees met with the council at a special meeting that was held Friday to approve the latest batch of city building permits.
It turned out that he confusion resulted because two different versions of the employee handbook were being distributed to city employees. One handbook showed the employee’s vacation time and sick leave computed separately. The other handbook indicated that employees were given paid leave, which effectively combined their vacation and sick leave. It was discovered that the second handbook was a draft of a revised handbook that was prepared a few years ago but was never adopted by the city council. It was given to new employees by mistake. The first version, which was approved in 2004, is the handbook that was supposed to be distributed to employees.
The council decided that to make sure there was no further confusion, copies of the correct version of the handbook would be given to all city employees. The council also decided that this was a good opportunity to reexamine city employment policies. It asked all city employees to review the handbook and submit any ideas for revising the policies for consideration at a future council meeting.
