title
Amendments to the Personnel Policies Manual
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SUBJECT
recommendation
Authorize amendments to the Personnel Policies Manual within the following sections:
• I. Employment Practices
• II. Employee Conduct and Safety
• III. Complaint Resolution
• IV. Compensation and Reimbursement
• V. Time-Off Benefits
• VI. Health and Related Benefits
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PURPOSE
Amendments to the Personnel Policies Manual are needed to reflect changes in federal employment law and workplace rules, implement best practices and make minor corrections throughout the manual. Specific changes include addition of new policies for hiring former employees as an independent contractor, establishing rules prohibiting employees from participating in District contract decisions benefiting a former employer or representation of a third party with a matter before the District, adding longevity pay, and the addition of Veterans Day as a District holiday.
RECOMMENDATION
The Executive Director/General Manager and NTMWD staff recommend the Board of Directors amend the NTMWD Personnel Policies Manual.
DRIVER(S) FOR THIS PROJECT
|
Strategic Objective: |
4.2 Safe and Healthy Employees 4.4 Employer of Choice |
|
☒ Regulatory Compliance |
☐ Asset Condition |
|
☐ Capacity |
☐ Redundancy/Resiliency |
|
☐ Relocation or External Requests |
☐ Operational Efficiency |
|
☐ Safety |
☒ Administrative |
|
☒ Policy |
☐ Other _____________ |
BACKGROUND
The Personnel Policies Manual was originally adopted in August 2017 in an effort to consolidate existing policies into a single manual. Amendments to the Personnel Policies Manual have been adopted since its creation to reflect changes in positions, processes, employment laws and workplace rules.
Revisions to meet legal requirements by aligning polices to employment law changes and workplace rules include the addition of up to two hours of paid time off for voting on election days to accommodate work schedule conflict (Section 2.3.8), notification of employees of their right to report workplace violence and suspicious activities to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) (Section 2.11), exempt employees are required to timely report absences (Section 4.8), and adding worker’s compensation policy on timely reporting of workplace injury reiterating District’s policy of no retaliation for filing workers’ compensation claim (Section 6.2).
Additional substantive changes include the following:
• Section 1.12 - Hiring Former a Employee as an Independent Contractor
o Add a new policy to require coordination with HR when hiring a former employee as an independent contractor to ensure that the former employee is in good standing and classified correctly.
• Section 1.13 - Personnel Files
o Adding language to formalize how confidential personnel records are handled and clarify that information contained in personnel files is confidential, unless disclosure is required by law or District policy.
• Section 2.3.4 - Benefits to Previous Employer or Former Employee
o Add a new policy prohibiting employees from participating in District contracts or matters that benefit their most recent former employer within 12 months of District employment.
o Add a prohibition on former employees from representing third parties with District business for compensation for 12 months following separation of employment. This action does not prohibit employees from representing themselves or family members.
• Section 4.12- Longevity Pay
o Add a policy to provide employee retention incentive pay based on service to the District at $5 per month of continuous District service and capped at $1,200 for employees with 20 or more years of service.
o Paid annually in November and does not count towards base pay rate.
• Section 5.7- Official Holiday
o Add Veterans Day as a new holiday
Finally, minor revisions and clarifications are proposed throughout the document.
FUNDING
N/A