NEWS

Mayor addresses unpaid workers, calls for policy change

Anna Wolfe
Clarion Ledger

Employees of Jackson's Early Childhood Development Program will no longer have to work uncompensated on furlough days, Mayor Tony Yarber says.

Workers' rights advocates Elizabeth Roberson, Amber Cooley and Katherine Robinson approached the Jackson City Council Tuesday to voice concerns regarding early childhood development employees working without pay.

Workers’ rights advocates left Tuesday’s City Council meeting pleased after the mayor addressed their concerns.

The employees of Jackson’s three child-care centers — Virden, Jones and Westside — say they were forced to work on monthly furlough days without pay.

“They didn’t really understand why they had to work and not get paid,” said Brenda Scott, president of the Mississippi Alliance of State Employees, who said she was speaking on behalf of the child-care workers as well as all city employees who are impacted by the city’s furlough.

The Early Childhood Development employees were told they could take a day off elsewhere to make up for the unpaid days worked, Scott said, but they had trouble doing so because of federal student-to-teacher ratios at the short-staffed centers.

Workers also claim they were forced to clock out on Kronos (the timekeeping system) during shifts before they were done for the day. That, Yarber said, is because each center's lacking budget hinders it from paying overtime. He added that the practice has been in place for over 10 years.

"To correct that, the appropriate amount of staff will be hired to give adequate coverage, and the timekeeping policy that is in place will be reviewed with staff again," Yarber said. "We will begin to audit the centers to make sure that neither compensation is owed and that we identify and correct any Kronos violations."

Yarber also said the childcare center positions would eventually be reclassified as essential, exempting them from furloughs.

The City Council will need to find roughly $52,000 to add to the early childhood development budget to get what it needs to finish out the year.

Amber Cooley, a  Mississippi Association of State Employees/Communications Workers of America organizer, said she was surprised by Yarber's proactive response.

"As long as they're doing the right thing, we're good, but if they're not, we're gonna call you on it," said Cooley, wearing a shirt with the word "furlough" in a circle with a slash through it.

Councilman Melvin Priester called the city's Early Childhood Development Program one of the most important in the city, indicating his commitment to finding the money the department needs.

"A dollar we spend here saves us from spending how many dollars down the road — when kids can't read, we're trying to find them tutors and people are blaming JPS, when we put programs in place to try to make our kids able to compete, and not be on the street and not be subject to abuse and neglect," Priester said.

Councilman De'Keither Stamps said the mayor's policy changes will help one department but that the city must eventually address a systemic problem and review the entire organization chart for the city.

Stamps said fewer people are served by the city, which needs to review and justify each new position.

"That means that some of our friends may have to find somewhere else in the system to work or go find a new system to work for. That's a tough one."

Stamps also encouraged city employees to speak up when they see abuse.

"Also, there's something that city employees know and can do to mitigate the situation first hand. City employees know where the inefficiencies in the system are. They know where the inefficient workflow is. We need the city employees to stop the inefficient workflow. We need more folks to look for fraud, waste and abuse," Stamps said.

Stamps asked the city to consider implementing a whistleblower policy to protect  workers who speak up.

Last week, The Clarion-Ledger contacted each Early Childhood Development center in Jackson and spoke to several workers who would not comment for this story, expressing concern over what they “could or could not” share with the newspaper.

Jewel Reed, manager of the city’s Early Childhood Development Program, told The Clarion-Ledger that all communication regarding the workers would have to be funneled through Yarber spokeswoman Shelia Byrd.

Contact Anna Wolfe at (601) 961-7326 or awolfe@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter.