INNISFAIL – The Town of Innisfail has avoided layoffs by working with staff to use accumulated vacation time and combining employee resources.
Senior administration said the strategy, made necessary by the provincial COVID-19 restrictions announced Dec. 8, is hoped to leave the town in a good operational state while maximizing efforts to ensure quality mental health for all staff.
The strategy not to layoff staff is designed to last until at least until mid-January when the provincial government will take a second look at the 28-day lockdown and decide whether to ease COVID restrictions, continue with the Dec. 8 order, or add new measures.
The Town of Innisfail has 63 permanent full time staff, along with 26-part-time casual and 21 firefighters.
Todd Becker, the town’s chief administrative officer, said at the onset of the pandemic last March it wasn’t known how it was going to effect local citizens and town employees.
He told council on Dec. 21 the pandemic forced the Town of Innisfail to go into a “business continuity mode” and limitations were placed on employees’ vacation. The town only allowed vacation requests for one week at a time and “never” for two consecutive weeks, said Becker.
He said this directive resulted in significant accumulated vacation time being built up over nine months. However, he noted the new provincial government ordered shutdown has forced staff to resume vacations for mental health and liability reasons.
“Right now, there is a large effort and cooperation by staff to take their vacations. As you read in the newspaper about municipalities with layoffs, we are able to avoid layoffs because we are repurposing employees, and allowing staff to be away,” said Becker.
Earlier in December The Albertan reported the Town of Penhold was laying off a third of its municipal workforce of 50 employees in response to the provincial government-ordered COVID shutdown.
“Right now, we are skinny on numbers due to vacation, and also administrative staff working at home through an administrative policy that was developed last week on outlining expectations,” said Becker, adding with the town’s recent COVID-related facility closures, notably the Arena, those operators are now working with the operations department, which is allowing them (operations) to use their vacation time as well.
“That is why we are not subject to those significant layoffs at this point. Of course, we will re-evaluate it in mid-January and see what is going to happen with the pandemic.”
Becker said a key component of the strategy’s success is cooperation from staff, which he said has been “amazing.”
“People want to serve. Our employees want to be working and serving the community. It’s amazing, full credit to our employees,” he said. “However, their well being is our priority all the time, so we are making sure they have the proper time away from the workplace to maintain their health. Staff are fully cooperative.”
