Present

Martha Tetrault, Brittany Burdick, Charlotte Clark, Kevin Thomas, Nadine Nance, Scott Henderson, Susan Gaskell, Tamra Hjermstad, Veronica Bosley, Scott Duncan

Minutes Approved

The minutes for the November minutes were approved with minor edits.

Agenda Building

The group reviewed results from the previous meetings session of brainstorming and prioritizing agenda items for the year.  They made some minor changes to the grouping of items.  The group decided to focus on the issue of improving access to college communications to all members of the community, with a special focus on those that don’t have regular access to computers in the course of their work.

Sick Bank Proposal

The Staff Committee sent Martha a proposal for creating a Sick Bank for hourly employees, which the committee reviewed prior to the meeting.  The proposal would allow hourly employees to donate a portion of their sick time to a general bank that could be drawn on by other hourly employees in the event of a medical emergency.  Some members expressed concern about offering access to a sick bank to employees who have abused sick time in the past.  Mt. Holyoke College’s policy includes a stipulation that “The employee must have a positive attendance record in order to receive donated time.”  It’s not clear how this is implemented; Kevin will follow up and report back to the Council.

The Council explored the option of allowing employees to donate sick time, not to a general fund, but to specific staff members in need.  There was also some discussion about allowing both options, so that staff members could contribute to a general fund or to a specific person.  But there were concerns that this could have the unintended impact of benefiting better known employees.  

Some council members expressed strong concerns about how some staff members abuse sick time.  We discussed the complexities about managing sick time abuse as a performance issue; this could be an area that requires more focus for manager training.

The Council also discussed the importance of being transparent about how the program works, and being specific about promoting the program if and when it is rolled out.   

Next Scheduled Meeting: Thursday,January 24, 2017, 1:00 p.m., HR Conference Room

Email any recommended agenda items to Kevin Thomas, Learning and Development Manager