Agenda Packets - 1986/11/03 - Laserfiche WebLink

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PPS-5. Military Leaves (11) that the statutes be amended Under current law i•.S. i92.26 and 192.261) a city employee, as well as other public employees, is entitled n leave with full pay and accrual of seniority status and other benefits for all the time that employee is engaged in short-term (15 days or less) military service and at this same time receives full military pay. Cities, particularly those which must hire part-time replacement employees when others take military leave, suffer a significant financial hardship not shared by private sector crplo5ars who are not required to provide short-term paid military leaves. Public employees should only be required to pay the difference between the employees military pay and their regular wage for this 15 day period. Any longer leave period should be without pay and the accrual of seniority and other benefits should be suspended for military leaves beyond 30 days. Current law which provides for mandatory leaves and reinstatement after wars, declared emergencies, active duty training, and duty training should be changed to provide for mandatory leaves and reinstatement only after wars and declared emergencies. Employees should not be entitled to leave and be reinstated for active or inactive training duty. PPS-6. Time and Distance Residency Requirements (B) The (' job necessity for certain employees to reside close to the city. In recent years the Legislature has limited the authority of cities and other local units of government to impose residency requirements for their employees. The Legislature has recognized, however, the need for insuring the ability of certain employees to be available to respond to emergency situations. In 1984, in the same bill which prohibited non -metropolitan cities from enacting blanket residency requirements, toe Legislature specifically allowed non -metropolitan cities to enact, reasonable area and response time restrictions if there were demonstrated job necessities for employes to reside close to the city. Unfortunately, a drafting error prohibited metropolitan cities from enacting these restrictions. In 1985, the Legislature acted to allow metropolitan communities to impose reasonable time and distance requirements for volunteer firefighters. The result of the 1984 and 1985 legislative actions is a situation where metropolitan communities still cannot impose reasonable time and distance requirements for their police officers, paid firefighters, or any employee with the exception of volunteer firefighters. The League recommends that the Legislature grant metropolitan cities the same authority granted non -metropolitan cities to impose reasonable time and distnnce requirements where the city can show a demonstrated job -related necessity. Because these requirements must pass this difficult test and / directly affect the public safety of the community, these requirements should t tinder no circumstances be considered as mandatory subjects of collective bargaining. -51-