Friday, October 23, 2009

Government Ops on 4 Tens

News organizations have widely reported on the savings from switching to the 4-tens work week, but they missed one important note: employees deserve mega kudos for saving the state over $4.1 million!


Thanks to public employees, Huntsman’s experiment has also made some energy savings—but not as much as was expected. Department of Human Resource Management’s Executive Director, Jeff Herring, said that the unrealized savings are due, in part, to falling energy prices. Remember the $3+/gallon gas?


Utah Public Employees’ Association was the only association representing employees at the Wed., Oct. 21st Government Operations Interim Committee. UPEA is advocating that employees receive recognition and consideration for their sacrifices in making the 4-tens experiment a success.


In the next few weeks, Dan Jones and Associates will conduct a poll of taxpayers to assess whether or not they favor the 4-tens. On one hand, who wouldn’t favor $4.1 million in savings? On the other hand, many taxpayers have a “once scorned…” mindset. Dan Jones & Associates has had trouble wording their survey to exclude respondents’ experiences with other levels of government, such as the county or federal government.

UPEA will keep you informed of all the developments regarding the 4-tens.