TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Bruce Moe, City Manager
FROM:
Lisa Jenkins, Human Resources Director
SUBJECT:Title
Consideration of a Resolution Approving a Classification and Compensation Plan for Part-Time Unrepresented Employees (Human Resources Director Jenkins).
ADOPT RESOLUTION NO. 22-0068
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Recommended Action
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council adopt Resolution No. 22-0068 approving a classification and compensation plan for part-time unrepresented employees of the City of Manhattan Beach.
Body
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
The classification and compensation plan includes adjustments to part-time salary ranges that will be implemented in the current fiscal year with budget savings, and will be added to the final adopted budget beginning in Fiscal Year 2022-2023. The estimated fiscal impact of these adjustments is approximately $130,000 annually.
BACKGROUND:
Historically, the terms of employment for part-time employees have been contained in the City’s personnel rules. The majority of part-time employees are in the Parks and Recreation Department; however, part-time employees provide important departmental support and services to the community across all City departments. The vast majority of part-time employees are unrepresented by a labor association or union. A comprehensive review of the part-time classification and compensation structure has not been undertaken for many years. While an update of the part-time compensation plan was planned for Fiscal Year 2019-2020, the pandemic affected this timeline, and many of the City’s part-time employees were not working during the height of the pandemic. Coming out of the pandemic, the job market has been impacted, particularly for part-time employment, making this review more critical to ensure continued recruitment and retention of part-time employees who staff the City’s summer programs and/or serve other part-time or seasonal needs.
DISCUSSION:
In order to address part-time recruitment and retention concerns, and as a part of the update of the City’s personnel rules, staff is recommending that the employment terms, classification and compensation for the City’s part-time unrepresented employees be centralized into a dedicated document, referred to as a classification and compensation plan. This action will provide an easy reference point to find the rules and compensation provisions for unrepresented part-time employees, expand flexibility for hiring part-time employees, and address compensation concerns in order to ensure the City remains competitive in being able to hire and retain part-time employees. Any part-time employee represented by a labor association or union is not covered by the classification and compensation plan, and their terms and conditions of employment will be governed by the applicable MOU.
Historically, key provisions of the personnel rules and the City’s practice have caused constraints on improving the structure of the part-time compensation plan and have hindered salary placement upon hiring and salary movement within the range for part-time employees. While the City Manager has had the authority to recommend changes to the salary plan, the salary structure stated in the personnel rules for part-time employees includes either a one-step or a three-step salary plan, with an employee moving through the three-steps within 18 months provided that they have worked the required number of hours. This has been historically interpreted to mean that a full-time position filled on a part-time basis, either filled for a regular part-time appointment or filled for a temporary or extra help assignment, is only authorized up to the mid-point of the salary range. This limits the City’s ability to attract and retain qualified individuals willing to work on a part-time basis. Additionally, increases to the minimum wage in the past several years have placed many of the City’s part-time positions close to minimum wage and condensed previously established salary relationships. Exacerbating these pre-existing challenges, the job market coming out of the pandemic has tightened, with reports of businesses unable to staff shifts, and many private sector employers offering starting salaries well above minimum wage to recruit employees. The recommended changes to the classification and compensation plan for part-time employees address these challenges by improving the salary structure, alignment, and competitiveness of part-time employees’ salaries. Highlights of the key provisions in the updated part-time classification and compensation plan include:
• Categories of Part-Time Employment have been defined as follows: Regular Part-Time; Temporary; Seasonal; and On-call/As-needed
• The part-time positions have been consolidated into fewer job classifications (for example, Recreation Leader I and Recreation Leader II have been combined into Recreation Leader) and the step schedule has been expanded from a 3-step to 5-step schedule.
• New classifications with broad responsibilities have been created that will aid in hiring part-time or temporary staff for special projects and programs without the creation of new job descriptions (e.g. Program Coordinator and Project Administrator).
• Only part-time positions without a full time equivalent are included on the part-time salary schedule.
• Any full-time position may be filled in a part-time capacity based upon organizational needs and paid at an hourly rate anywhere within the corresponding salary schedule for the full-time positon. A part-time equivalent classification does not need to be added if a full-time job description exists; however, to the extent that part-time employment is of a different nature or broader scope than has been utilized historically, the Human Resources Department will evaluate and fulfill any meet and confer obligations with full-time employee associations or unions.
• Employees are eligible for annual step movement or movement within range (no more than 10%) rather than the six months and minimum of 300 hours required under the personnel rules.
In addition to the proposed salary structure changes effective May 2022, the classification and compensation plan includes cost of living adjustments (COLAs) in future years, with the same percentage and effective dates as the represented employee bargaining units (3% COLA for each 2023 and 2024, and a 1.5% COLA for January 1, 2025 - June 30, 2025). Five of the City’s employee bargaining units, including the Manhattan Beach Part-Time Employees Association (MBPTEA), negotiated MOU’s that were approved between February and April of this year.
PUBLIC OUTREACH:
Staff has determined that public outreach was not required for this issue.
LEGAL REVIEW:
The City Attorney has reviewed this report and determined that no additional legal analysis is necessary. The City Attorney has approved the compensation plan as to form.
ATTACHMENT:
1. Resolution No. 22-0068