On any given workday this year, only three of five employees in the solid waste division of Atlanta's Department of Public Works were on the job.
A combination of legitimate leave, injuries on the job, workers compensation and "excessive absenteeism" meant the solid waste division operated on 63 percent staffing on average, according to documents presented to the Atlanta City Council.
The missing employees meant the city had to pay overtime and for extra staff. Now, the department is cracking down, vowing to enforce attendance policies already on the books. It also is trying to establish whether there are patterns of absenteeism: particular employees taking inordinate amounts of time off on Mondays after pay days, for example.
"We had some workers call in and say, ‘I'm not coming in today,'" said Dexter White, deputy commissioner of public works. "That's just unacceptable. We're very serious about them coming to work."
It's unclear exactly how much the absences cost taxpayers. But in the most recent budget, the city set aside about $541,000 to pay for extra help in the Department of Public Works, and allocated more than $1.36 million for overtime. The overtime figure was an increase of about $413,000 or 44 percent, from the previous year.
Gina Pagnotta, president of PACE Atlanta -- the Professional Association of City Employees -- said policies governing late arrivals and absences should be consistent across all city departments. She said the union would look into whether the Office of Solid Waste Services is being unfairly targeted for strict oversight.
"It should be uniform -- it has to be consistent," she said. "You can't say in one department, you have seven minutes grace period, and in another, you have a different amount of time."
In addition, the workload for solid waste workers changed dramatically this year when the city started a new program called "3n1," in which household garbage, recycling and yard trimmings are picked up on the same day. That has been tough on employees, Pagnotta said.
"They're getting hurt," she said. "They're getting tired."
The Office of Solid Waste Services, one of the largest offices within the $25.5 million public works department, is responsible for picking up solid waste and recycling, sweeping and cleaning streets, removing dead animals and helping with emergency operations such as snow and ice removal. Department managers acknowledge it's not easy work.
There are about 730 full-time employees in the public works department; the department did not provide a figure for the solid waste office.
Earlier this month, the public works department started its concerted drive to enforce attendance policies. The goal is to get solid waste employees up to 80 percent to 85 percent availability every day, White said.
"That would be really good," he said. "This is a very labor-intensive type of work environment."
The department is reinforcing its sick leave policy, White said. If employees take "excessive" sick leave, defined as more than six days per year, extra scrutiny kicks in. A doctor's note would be required. Also, the department's tardiness policy -- three allowed late arrivals per year -- will be enforced with disciplinary actions.
"It really has an impact on our start times if we don't have enough people on the truck," White said. "How many times can you be late in a job in the private sector?"
The public works department defines tardiness as reporting to work seven minutes after a designated work shift begins, according to a two-page attendance policy provided in response to a request by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Excessive tardiness would be reporting to work late twice within a single 10-day pay period. The policy provides for gradual discipline for excessive tardiness or absences without leave, ranging from oral admonishments to dismissal. The policy was effective Nov. 28, 2008.
A memo signed Dec. 5, 2008, by then-public works Commissioner Joe Basista advised managers to discuss the policies and procedures at staff meetings "to ensure that employees understand the critical nature of this policy." The current commissioner of the Department of Public Works is Richard Mendoza.
The city's solid waste crews recently notched dramatic improvements in performance. The number of missed pickups of garbage, recycling and yard trimmings all fell in September compared with August.
But even with those improvements -- and with plans for a beefed-up fleet of vehicles to deal with ice and snow this winter -- some officials say the department needs to mind the store more attentively.
"Even if you got 100 new trucks, it wouldn't really matter, because a third of your workers aren't where they need to be," City Councilman Howard Shook said at a committee meeting last month.
"We know a lot of the young people are a little challenged Mondays and Fridays," City Councilman C.T. Martin said.
White said the department has some dedicated workers who rarely take time off and accumulate large chunks of leave. But a number of other workers simply call in and say they're not coming to work. Those workers are put on leave without pay, although they keep their benefits.
"We hope that these policies would be encouraging to the employees," White said. "It's important that we have proper staffing to accomplish our daily mission."
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