Commissioners’ crackdown injures morale, judge says

By Marcia Moore
The Daily Item

January 13, 2009 07:41 am

— SUNBURY — Adding 16 biometric time clocks right after many Northumberland County workers were forced to stomach wage freezes may be demoralizing to some, but the county commissioners say honest and diligent staff members will welcome the assurance that all their colleagues are playing fair.
Majority Commissioner Vinny Clausi said a request for proposals on time clocks that recognize an employee’s fingerprints will likely be sought in about two weeks and the commissioners hope to have the new equipment in place by the end of the year.
Clausi said the 16 time clocks will cost about $55,000, but some employees say it’s costing much more in low morale.
“Morale is at an all time-low,” said one courthouse employee, who asked not to be identified.
The decision to install time clocks at a time when nonunionized workers aren’t getting raises is especially irksome, she said. About 725 of the 850 county employees are in a union.
“Nervous wrecks” is how President Judge Robert B. Sacavage described county employees in the wake of several firings and acknowledgement by Clausi that employees are being closely watched, even followed, to determine how they’re using county vehicles and if they’re being truthful on mileage reports.
Clausi and Minority Commissioner Kurt Masser say there are only a few poorly performing employees, about 5 percent of the people on the county payroll.
But, they agree that installing time clocks to monitor employee work habits is a proper and fair solution.
“We have to get a grip on how many hours people are working, and in any industry, people punch the clock,” Clausi said. “We can’t pick and choose, so it’s fair to make everyone use a time clock.”
Masser said many employees support the use of time clocks.
“They are working full days and sitting across from someone who isn’t, so they welcome it,” he said.
Sacavage said he’s in favor of a more efficient work environment, but questions the way the commissioners are attempting to resolve the situation.
“Department heads are the people who should be running herd” over their workers, he said.
Implementing time clocks “to weed out the bad people” is overkill, Sacavage said, adding that the commissioners only once consulted him about an employee and that was due to misinformation they had about use of sick leave.
He’s uncertain how the time clocks will work, particularly with on-call employees, such as probation officers, who are called out to various locations around the county at all hours.
Clausi said for about $100 more per unit, the biometric technology verifying individual fingerprints is available and a reliable way of confirming an employee is on the job.
Mike Knopp, the county’s director of information services, is working with Utah-based Qqest Software Systems to figure out what equipment would work best and tie into the payroll system.