Honolulu City Council Policy Resolutions

ESTABLISHING THE GOAL OF AT LEAST TWENTY PERCENT PARTICIPATION IN A COMPRESSED WORK WEEK SCHEDULE AMONG ELIGIBLE CITY GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES BY THE END OF 1993 AND DIRECTING THE CITY ADMINISTRATION TO DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT A COMPRESSED WORK WEEK PROGRAM.

    WHEREAS, variable work hour programs, such as a compressed work week, staggered hours and flextime, are transportation demand management (TDM) actions focused on changing travel characteristics by shifting commuters out of peak traffic periods or by reducing the number of work trips; and

    WHEREAS, under the compressed work week, for example, employees are permitted to modify their forty hour per week work schedule of eight hours per day, five days per week to a schedule that usually consists of more hours per day and fewer days per week; and

    WHEREAS, the intent of the compressed work week schedule is to alleviate road congestion during peak traffic hours as well as to relieve bottlenecks at access points of parking facilities by switching one of the employee's daily trips, either to or from work, to outside the peak hour of traffic and/or by eliminating work travel for one day of the work week; and

    WHEREAS, in a carefully controlled experiment of the compressed work week in Denver, Colorado, involving 7,000 federal employees, two versions of a compressed work week were implemented, one with half the employees working ten hours a day, four days a week and the second with the remaining half working nine hours a day, four days a week and four hours on the fifth day; and

    WHEREAS, the Denver experiment had a 65 percent participation rate and proved to be successful in reducing traffic congestion, vehicle miles traveled (i.e., total miles traveled by all vehicles in an area for a specified time period), and emissions as well as in producing the secondary benefit of encouraging ridesharing; and

    WHEREAS, an evaluation of the principal forms of variable work hour programs, including the compressed work week program, has shown them to be cost-effective for employers who reported increased productivity, decreased sick time and reduced overtime; now, therefore,

    BE IT RESOLVED by the Council of the City and County of Honolulu that the following goal is established: By the end of 1993, at least twenty percent of all eligible City government employee shall participate in a compressed work week schedule; and

    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City administration shall take the necessary steps to establish a compressed work week program among City government employees to meet the goal established above; and

    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the following guidelines shall govern the compressed work week program:

    a)    Eligibility -- The criteria to determine the City employee eligibility in the program shall include, but not be limited to: 1) The location of the work place must fall within the areas of the Honolulu International Airport to Waikiki; 2) The job held by the employee must be amenable to the compressed work schedule and not create a reduction in direct services to the public; and 3) The terms of collective bargaining contract agreement of the employee shall not be violated.

    b)    Coordination -- The City administration shall designate an individual to promote the compressed work week schedule and work with the City departments to provide a suitable environment that would encourage eligible City employees to participate in the program. The coordinator shall work with the appropriate departments to eliminate problems such as the difficulty in finding parking on a first-come, first-served basis and the lack of express bus service at certain hours of the day, and to develop incentives to promote the compressed work week schedule among City employees.

     c)    Monitoring -- The City administration shall develop and institute a system of monitoring employee work hours and schedules to avoid abuses.

    d)    Evaluation -- The City administration shall develop a method of evaluating the compressed work week program to determine its impact and effectiveness in reducing traffic congestion, vehicle miles traveled and any other measurable improvement in traffic on Oahu. Suchevaluation shall also include, but not be limited to, the impact of the compressed work week on the delivery of public services, employee attitudes, and recommendations for the institutionalization and expansion of the program in future years;
and

    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City administration submit a progress report on the compressed work week program within ninety days of the adoption of this Resolution and its evaluation within sixty days of the end of 1993, including a report on the meeting of the City's participation goals; and

                        INTRODUCED BY:

                        Rene Mansho

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                                 Councilmembers

DATE OF INTRODUCTION:

January 8, 1993
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Honolulu, Hawaii

ADOPTED this 17 day of February , 1993.

(OCS/020493/pn)

Policy Resolutions