Saying the current process isn’t fair, Councilwoman Donna Collins-Lewis wants the Metro Council to approve a 90-day moratorium on the rehiring of retired city-parish employees, using the time to create and approve a new city-parish policy.
If the proposal passes, it will be for discussion at the council’s May 9 meeting. Collins-Lewis would use the three-month window to appoint a recommendations committee and draft a new retire/rehire policy.
“The process is unfair the way that it’s done,” she said. “There’s just no policy, and, to me, it’s abusive.”
The city-parish’s somewhat controversial employment policy allows retired employees to immediately return to work part-time while collecting retirement benefits. Collins-Lewis argues that policy not only hampers career advancement for employees but also prevents outside talent attraction efforts.
Collins-Lewis says “many people” have asked her to continue fighting since her bid to end the existing process altogether failed a few weeks ago. Her latest crack at revamping the policy, she says, will include research into the processes used by the school system and state, as well as “adding some teeth to it so people understand what [she’s] doing.”
Unclear if a moratorium is approved, says Metro Councilman Matt Watson, is the fate of two underway city-parish projects being spearheaded by employees about to go through the retire/rehire process: major upgrades to both the city-parish 911 system as well as the financial and human resources system.
Watson says the employees’ anticipated retirement dates fall within the potential 90-day rehiring freeze, adding if new hires are required the result will be delays and added taxpayer cost for both projects.
“Their loss would be both a financial and a public safety detriment to our parish,” Watson said.
He says he would be open to negotiations exempting the Department of Information Services, which both employees fall under, from the moratorium.
