Paid time off eyed

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

— The newly-formed VAS Ambulance Service Corporation’s policy committee met for the first time Monday afternoon to discuss the proposed paid time off policy put together by Richard Wynne, director of operations.

Board member Richard Funk stressed he wants policies made to be sound enough to be carried out by Wynne, with no need for board intervention.

The idea behind paid time off is to give full-time employees who have worked for VAS for 12 consecutive months and are in good standing three paid shifts off per year, according to Funk.

Wynne said the use of paid time off began by recommendation of the previous board in December2009, to eliminate the separation of sick time and paid vacation.

However, there was no policy written from that decision.

Funk suggested the group consider pulling sick time out of the proposed policy and giving eligible employees two paid sick days per year, to be fair in cases of unexpected illness.

The committee also discussed considering an employee grievance policy and policies for the board, such as the use of Robert’s Rules to conduct meetings and a format for the monthly meeting agenda.

Wynne will assess the budget and the fiscal impact of adding two days of paid sick leave.

The committee will present the recommendation to the board at the next regular meeting, set for March 9.

News, Pages 1 on 02/17/2010