Albany County Government: Legislature Addresses Time And Attendance, Proposes Amendments To Rules And Regulations For County Employees

Press release from the Albany County Government:

02/14/2022 7:31 pm

The Albany County Legislature is making several amendments to the County’s Employee Rules and Regulations to provide clarification on procedures regarding time and attendance.

In a resolution introduced Monday night, the proposed amendments include a clause for time keeping practices that outlines a written procedure for how an employee records their time, how supervisors approve time and how time entries will be maintained for record keeping purposes.

Another amendment proposes the addition of a clause specifying an employee’s responsibility to perform their duties as assigned, and clarifies that no personal business can be conducted during County work hours including, but not limited to, “political campaign work, non-county authorized work and the non-incidental use of personal devices.”

While employees were already subject to disciplinary action for infractions of the rules, the Legislature clarifies that termination can be an option.

The proposed changes also broaden the list of allowable relationships for the purposes of determining paid leaves of absence and amends language related to insurance benefits to better represent the different types of familial structures.

“It is our job to create policy that is clear and adequately represents the roles and responsibilities for both sides of the employment relationship, and this is an important piece toward that end,” said Legislator Lynne Lekakis, chair of the Rules Review and Legislative Modernization Special Committee who sponsored the resolution. “We are updating all the rules and regulations and anticipate completing it this year.”

“Ensuring that the County’s rules and regulations are keeping up with changes in the work place is a massive undertaking, but one that we know is important and necessary,” said Legislature Chairman Andrew Joyce. “These amendments have been needed for some time and I want to thank Legislator Lekakis for ensuring that our policies and procedures are up to date for our County employees.”

This press release was produced by the Albany County Government. The views expressed here are the author’s own.