Council Approves Reduction In Compensation For Managers On Temporary Assignments

The amount of money paid to out of scope (non - union) City of Moose Jaw managers when they are temporarily assigned to additional management duties is going down.

At their last meeting Council voted unanimously 7 - 0 to adopt a new compensation policy reducing the amount of pay bump up out of scope managers temporarily receive filling in on other assignments.

“The primary change being proposed is change to the rate. The current policy allows for 20 percent salary during a period of (temporary) assignments and we’re recommending to adjust that to eight percent,” TJ Karwandy director of Human Resources told Council.

The 20 percent salary top up to an out of scope employee is when they are given another assignment due to vacancy, vacating, or extended leave.

Karwandy said the policy change is a logical one because a staff member could earn more in a temporary assignment versus what position position pays if they were permanent.

The position would typically pay less under the present 20 percent if they would become a permanent position, he said.

“This is causing issues because if someone were to be promoted to permanently to a higher level the increase will typically be in range five to ten percent range. So having a rate that exceeds the permanent (rate) it’s a bit illogical to have a lower rate for permanent rate then just taking a (position) temporarily.”

Karwandy said other municipalities have the same policy that was being proposed by Administration.

”It is more in line with our permanent increase in what you would find in other jurisdictions,”he said, adding “the other change is to include a maximum duration for an assignment.”

The move to a lower compensation rate for temporary assignments for out of scope personnel will see a small cost saving.

The average savings would be $7,250 annually.

The proposed policy change also included the length of time a position could be temporarily staffed before a more permanent solution was found.

Councillor Heather Eby welcomed the proposal at the same time commenting how Council rarely saw a request to approve reductions in employees’ compensation.

“It’s very unusual we get a request to reduce a salary line in anybody’s budget I really appreciate it,” Councillor Eby said, going onto complement Kawandy and his staff for going “over this policy and (finding) something here that really didn’t make sense.”

Council voted 7 - 0 in favour of the policy changes.