Excerpts from the ChicagoSunTimes.com:
The Chicago Police and Fire Departments will make the switch from a paper-based time-keeping system to an electronic system that uses biometrics, as part of a citywide crackdown on absenteeism with a $10 million price tag.
The police department spent a record $116.1 million on overtime in 2015 — up 17.2 percent from the previous year — to mask a manpower shortage that has mushroomed under Mayor Rahm Emanuel, with police retirements outpacing hiring by 975 officers.
On Thursday, Budget Director Alex Holt acknowledged that both the police and fire departments, where overtime has also been a problem, are still using a paper system for tracking hours worked. That’s about to change, thanks to changes recommended by an absenteeism task force tied to Emanuel’s tax-laden 2016 budget.
It calls for the two departments to move from their paper-based timekeeping system to the automated system in place for all other city departments. The transition is expected to be completed by the winter of 2017 for the fire department and one year later for the police department.
“We need to put them on the city’s main time-keeping system so we can have a centralized record. Everybody swipes. We know when people show up to work. We know when people leave. It allows the city . . . to better manage the police and fire work force,” Holt said.
The electronic timekeeping system uses biometric time clocks and hand geometry technology. Employees swipe their identification badges, then put their hands on a palm reader that reads their fingerprints. Without that system, Holt was asked how taxpayers can be certain the $116.1 million in police overtime hours billed were legitimately worked.
The report also recommends that the city adopt a common working definition of absenteeism across all city departments critical to tracking, policy-making and effective discipline.
An excused absence must meet several conditions: sufficient notice to and approval by a supervisor; a reason acceptable to that supervisor, and sufficient accrued paid time off to cover that absence unless otherwise compensated for things like jury duty, administrative, family or bereavement leave, or duty disability.
Other recommendations include developing a comprehensive swiping policy, streamlining attendance codes, establishing a dashboard that publicly displays lost work-time rates and trends for each city department, reforming and streamlining progressive discipline for absenteeism, and providing departments with actionable monthly reports that identify absenteeism by employees and holding mangers accountable for fair and consistent enforcement.
The report also calls for increased training for both employees and supervisors.
The Departments of Streets and Sanitation and Fleet Management have used all of those measures and more to reduce what was once chronic absenteeism. Now, those two departments lead the city with the lowest absenteeism rates of 4.5 and 3.5 percent respectively.
Every year, as much as 7 percent of the time that should have been worked by city employees is lost to absenteeism. Up to 15 percent of that is, what Holt calls overt absenteeism.
“That’s really what the task force suggested we concentrate on because that’s lost time. That’s work that doesn’t get done. It’s services that aren’t provided, and we really need to focus on getting that number as small as possible.”
Holt said it’s tough to compare city absenteeism to the private sector because Chicago has such a generous sick pay policy. It gives city employees 12 to 13 paid sick days each year with the ability to carry those sick days over from year to year.
Does the mayor intend to use the collective bargaining process to try to reduce the number of sick days? Not right now, Holt said.
The electronic time-keeping system is tailor-made to prevent employees from swiping each other in and out.
thanks Dan
