Commission gives employees option of 32-hour work week

Morgan County Commission is giving employees whose salaries are paid from the general fund the option of reducing their workweek from 40 to 32 hours per week as a budget-reduction measure for fiscal 2011-2012.

“We’ve circulated policy forms to eligible employees and asked for them to be returned to the Humans Resources director not later than Tuesday, July 19.” said Commission Chairman Ray Long. “This is strictly voluntary and there will be no change in benefits for those who sign up. Participation would be mandatory for one year. On average, we’d save $6,000 in salary for each one who opts to work a shorter week.”

“There has been some interest expressed in having the option of working fewer than 40 hours and we’ll know how many employees choose that option when we hold our next budget meeting on July 21,” Long stated. “We’ll also begin meeting individually with department heads to review and evaluate their budget requests.

He said other options being looked at are a 371/2 hour workweek with a potential savings of $600,000 or a 35-hour workweek with a savings of $1.2 million.

“We’re faced with a $2 million revenue shortfall in this year’s budget,” Long pointed out. “That’s because revenues are less than what was anticipated and operational costs are higher than what was budgeted. The bottom line is we‘re going to have to find ways to reduce last year’s budget by about 10 percent in order to balance the budget for 2011-2012.”