Highland City Council to discuss 4-day workweek

HIGHLAND — Employees of Highland city may be the next to fall in line with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s idea for a four-day workweek.

The City Council will discuss and is expected to take action on the issue during its meeting on Tuesday.

"When the governor announced their change, we thought it is something we wanted to look at and try to be consistent with what is going on in the state," Highland Mayor Jay Franson said.

Highland adopted a four-day workweek in the past, which allowed city employees to enjoy three days off a week. But on that occasion, the change was an employee benefit issue. Franson said he hopes this change, if passed, will benefit the community.

While proponents of the four-day workweek often say it cuts employee travel costs by 20 percent, Franson said the biggest benefit is that the schedule would help cut energy costs of operating government buildings.

Highland city employs more than 30 people, some of whom already work four days a week. But under the current work schedule, City Hall remains open five days a week. The change would unify all employees in their hours and days worked.

"We are currently on a modified 4/10 schedule, so if the council decides to make the change it is not going to be a huge adjustment for most employees," said Jody Bates, who works in the city administration department. "The main change is that the administration building would be completely closed on Fridays."

Public safety officials would not see any changes to their schedules, and there would be certain people in different departments who would be on-call in case something was needed in emergency situations.

If passed, the change would not take place until the city moves into its new city hall, which is currently under construction and is estimated to be completed sometime in September.

As for how much savings could be, Franson said he was unsure because they are not yet in the new building

"We have not had the benefit of paying a few bills, so to speak," he said. "So if it is approved, we will give it a try and see how it is working. My biggest concern is the service issue and our need of being available to the residents. But we are finding that the crew there on Friday now is not as busy as other days, so we can probably get by without having the doors open."

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