Following the secondary roads department decertifying its union last fall, changes are being made to the Washington County employee manual. The changes for the entire county reflect some of the benefits the secondary roads department had in its union contract related to vacation and overtime pay. At this week’s Washington County Board of Supervisors meeting, the supervisors approved some changes.

County Engineer Jacob Thorius explained that the hours worked needed to be defined and whether overtime begins when an employee goes over eight hours in a day or 40 hours in a week. The supervisors agreed to go with Thorius’s suggestion for holiday time, “The one I’m proposing, and my recommendation would be option B. Which would be, you have to physically work 40 hours or if there’s a holiday during that time frame, that holiday would count toward hours worked.” This change will create overtime pay for the Public Health Department, which serves clients on holidays, and for the Sheriff’s Office which has staff work six days on and then three days off so now there will be added holiday pay. It could also potentially cause more pay for secondary roads if snow events happen on holidays.

Payout for compensation time will now follow with the calendar year. Also, for any call backs there is now a one-hour’s pay guarantee. And the vacation time has changed. Previously during the first year an employee got one week of vacation and now it has changed so employees in years one through four will get two weeks of vacation. Employees in years five through 11 will have three weeks of vacation. And any with 12 or more years of service receive four weeks of vacation. There was a proposal to have five weeks of vacation for employees with more than 20 years of service, but that was not approved.

All changes will take place July 1st.