Local authority to introduce ‘flexible working hours’ in a bid to cut costs

East Dunbartonshire Council is attempting to introduce a “flexible working hours” scheme for its neighbourhood team in an attempt to reduce costs, a news report in the local media can reveal.

The team is in charge of delivering a wide range of front line services and its members are currently working a relatively standard five day week. They also work weekend overtime shifts from time to time, but only when they need to carry out tasks that can’t be done in normal working hours.

However, in order to eliminate these overtime shifts and reduce costs, the council plans to implement a new scheme with varying shifts taking place anytime between 6am and 10pm, seven days a week.

Neighbourhood services convener Ashay Ghai explained: “Introducing working patterns across seven days with a wider range of hours across the working day will enable us to offer more flexible services at times that are convenient to our customers.

“Moving to this working practice will also deliver significant savings by reducing overtime requirements to carry out services.”

While the local council leaders are currently carrying out consultation on the plans, concerns have been raised by both employees and local residents regarding the negative effect such a scheme could have on both the workforce and the general public.

Employers considering the implementation of flexible working schemes or various shift patterns should also make sure that they have the required workforce management systems in place and working beforehand, and this is specifically where Tensor’s WinTA.NET solution could put its market-leading efficiency to very good use.

From simple determination of overtime by the number of daily hours worked, to the more complex payment of overtime hours adjusted when periodic targets are not met, WinTA.NET can supply working rules to calculate the correct result. The system contains special rules to accommodate the formal flexitime contracts worked by many public sector employees. Workers paid on an annual contract basis can receive reports stating how many contracted hours they have yet to work.

Additionally, by using a Tensor Smart Card and input device (keypad, barcode scanner etc), workers can book time against multi-tiered jobs to produce a fully costed analysis and breakdown of time spent on each job. Reports show jobs that are over budget or those approaching their budget limit. This information can also be exported to a spreadsheet.

If you’d like to find out more about the WinTA.NET Time and Attendance monitoring and management solution, just contact us or Book a Demo, we’ll be more than happy to answer all of your questions and queries.