The V.I. Territorial Emergency Management Agency stopped paying night differential to employees on rotating schedules, but is working to pay night differential backpay "owed" its employees before the end of the fiscal year, VITEMA Executive Director Elton Lewis said during budget hearings Thursday.
VITEMA suspended night differential pay in 2010, pending a final policy determination about the question, Lewis said.
"Based on research of the V.I. Code, the Office of Collective Bargaining has determined that night pay differential is only paid to government employees who work a regular night shift between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.," Lewis said. "The differential pay does not apply to employees on rotating shifts. The 911 operators are rotating shift employees. As a result, as of July 18, 2013, the agency ended the practice of making night pay differential payments to the 911 operators," he said.
"What remains to be resolved is what is owed to operators who were being paid night differential between 2008 and 2010, when night differential was suspended until a final policy determination had been made. VITEMA is in the process of calculating the total of all night pay differential owed between that period and payment will be made to the 911 operators. I have also opted to pay night differential from 2010 through July 18, 2013, because I think it’s the right thing to do in all fairness," he said.
Senators were broadly supportive of backpay, with sharp questions about why night differential was eliminated for VITEMA but not in all departments. How VITEMA could simultaneously determine it should not give night differential pay for rotating shifts but owes them that same night differential pay was not discussed.
Sen. Kenneth Gittens asked whether fire, police and emergency responders get paid night differential for night shifts during rotating schedules.
"Yes, but that is a function of their bargaining agreement," Lewis said, adding that the contract for VITEMA’s workers was being negotiated and the question might be addressed then.
Sen. Clifford Graham asked whether VITEMA had the funds to make the payments and why they have not been made yet. Debra Henneman-Smith, VITEMA’s deputy director for finance and administration, said some employees changed pay grades when moving to VITEMA from the V.I. Police Department, some had received partial payment, and others had not, and the records cover several years, all complicating the task.
"We are working to get the backpay for them by the end of the fiscal year, so we don’t have to go before this body to ask for an appropriation for the backpay," Smith said. VITEMA should be able to make the payments by using the funds for salaried positions that were not filled, she said.
Lewis presented VITEMA’s proposed budget totaling $11.1 million, which is comprised of $4.3 million from the General Fund; $4.6 million from federal grants; $1.59 million from the Miscellaneous Fund within the General Fund; and $600,000 from the Emergency Services Fund for E911 Communications Center operations, which is funded by a $1 surcharge on communications lines.
Of the federal funding, $3 million will pass through to contractors for capital outlays for flood mitigation projects, Lewis said, leaving VITEMA’s actual operating budget at $9 million for the coming year.
That budget will fund 81 positions – 65 by the General Fund, consisting of 43 911 operators, and 16 from federal grants.
The V.I. Labor Management Council also appeared before the Finance Committee to discuss its budget. The governor’s budget recommends $175,000 from the General Fund; a $10,000 increase from the appropriation level in FY12 and the prior two years. Of that, $88,000 is for wages and salaries; $19,000 for employer benefit contributions; $7,000 for supplies; and $61,000 for "other services and charges." LMC Executive Director Aubrey Lee requested $185,000 – or $10,000 more than the governor’s recommendation.
No votes were taken at the information gathering hearing.
