Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Kelly Shift Schedule - explained

The following explanation of the Kelly Shift Schedule was sent to me by somebody who obviously knows.. Thanks! (The Kelly Shift Schedule was bargained for in recent negotiations by the officers of the Woodstock Police Department and the City of Woodstock).

"That system involves the officers working 8.5 hours a day.  That means they work 2.5 hours extra a week, none of which is overtime to the city, or approx 10 hours each 28 days, not each month. It is a 28 day cycle.  To make that up, the officer gets to work 5 on and have 2 off, then work 5 on and have 3 days off, then 5 on 2 off, and 5 on 3 off and keep alternating, so that when the year is up, it is a wash that they only work 2080 hours a year, which is what their salary is based on - 2080 hours a year.  That gets the officer more days off and eventually they will have a Fri-Sat-Sun off; I think every 12 weeks or so, which is coveted, and their days off M-Su automatically change because of the 3 days off.

"The benefit for the city is that there is no dead time, there is always an officer on the street during shift change.  The way it is now, the last 15 minutes of your shift, you go to the station and switch cars out with the oncoming shift and pass on information during roll call.  So for 15 minutes, nobody is actively patrolling the streets but if an emergency happens, they would respond to the call from the station.  A lot of veteran drunks and bar owners know about this 15-minute window and scoot home.  The down side to the city is that you have to have a larger fleet of radios, vehicles, flashlights etc..., because for a half an hour a day, you have twice the amount of officers patrolling at one time.  
"The officers now work 8.25 hours and the 15 minutes that the officers showed up early now was non gratis in exchange for getting paid for lunch.  Now they still get paid for lunch and really only have to work an extra 15 minutes, but get credited for 30 and get the extra days off. 
"There are formulas for 10-hour shifts and 12-hour shifts for officers and 24-hour shifts for firemen that work in a similar fashion. My feeling was that if you have to be there for 8 hours, why not more; that way you get extra days off.  It is more advantageous for the officers, which is why they bargain for that in their contracts, they probably had to give up something else to get that. 
So they will work 7-3:30, 3-11:30 and 11-7:30 and get extra days off, rather than working 6:45-3, 2:45-11, 10:45-7 for 5 on, 2 off and being paid for a 40 hour work week.

3 comments:

The Usual Suspect said...

Close but no cigar. The Kelly is a fire schedule but it does not matter what you call it.

The 5/2-5/3 is a 15 day rotating schedule. Employees work 5 days then off 2, next week working 5 and off 3. Days off leap forward through the month and then the employee gets PART of a weekend for 7 weeks. This is a good schedule for employees however this schedule presents its own set of problems. This is basic scheduling 101 that any management level person should have gotten in training class if they attended. I will explain.

Under the normal 5 day week a person works 260 - 8 hour days per year.2080 hours per year

This system work 8.5 hour day equaling 243 days per year. At 8.5hours worked per day the employee is 'GIVEN" 14.5 hours pay for less hours worked. Some agencies make employees use 8.5 hours vacation time per day of leave which reduces total vacation leave. If they take a personal day or sick day do they get deducted 8.5 or 8 hours?

The county chose to simplify benefit days off to 8 hours. So employees gain additional benefit time off.

OK so far? Now answer me this. This day off schedule leaves 17 days PER employee that is an open shift. (243 versus 260)

17 shifts times the number of employees that work that now need to be filled.

The 5/2-5/3 has 15 day off groups possibilities. Of these 15 day off groups, only 3 groups do not overlap one day on day on either side. IF there are three employees, one assigned in each of these three day off groups. Two are working and one is off. So of three employees only two are regularly scheduled to work at any given time. The other is scheduled off.

Sure the "hours" per year are basically the same as a regular 5 day week BUT the days worked are far less. This means when the Chief does the schedule he will have fewer full time equivalent(FTE) officers shifts per year and these must either be filled or eliminated. Bottom line is 17 fewer shifts per officer per year.
Either hire more people or hire back officers at overtime.

Gus said...

Thanks to you (and to the other reader who explained the Kelly Shift Schedule).

So, more cars? More radios? More flashlight? More employees or more over-tine?

What did the new contract really cost the City?

Unknown said...

I work this schedule.I work 10 days in 2 weeks,i get payed for 9 days because of the rotation.I should get payed for 10.That day is all OT.Instead it's carried over for next pay period.