Guest Comment: Lets start asking why at GVR

Sometimes you just have to ask why….Like why an employee council was formed to present GVR board of directors with a benefits package that would suggest cutting out the night shift pay and cutting the paid time off for part-time employees? (We were informed of this proposal at a meeting on May 1.)

The part-time office staff at GVR is seasonal, and does the same job as their full-time counterparts.

In the custodial department, the part-time employees work every weekend and every holiday. Half of the custodians at GVR are part-time staff and do the same jobs that the Monday thru Friday staff does.

Part-time staff saves GVR money by not getting medical, dental, 401k match, or a reduction on their GVR dues.

They also save GVR money by covering the vacations of full-time staff, so time and a half isn’t paid. Part-time staff earns paid time off only for the actual hours they work at the same rate per hour as the full-time staff, and should be able to take time off with pay, just like other staff at GVR.

The part-time staff at GVR is almost all seniors who are working because they need to make their money last longer and/or they want to feel that what they do is contributing to making their homes in GVR better, not because they are bored.

Because most events are scheduled when schools and businesses are closed, the evening shift at GVR is paid 5 percent extra in compensation for missing out on family and social activities that the premium shift people are able to attend.

So why when these part-time and evening people are so important in keeping GVR running evenings and weekends at a lower cost then full-time employees, were we told that these are the cuts that this council has decided to suggest to the board?

And why did management form a council that is to represent ALL of the GVR staff but has not one person who works evening shift, not one person who works weekends, not one person who is a senior, and not one person who is part-time?

Why did management say they wanted to make these cuts now instead of waiting to be told where cuts had to be made? (This is always a warning to me that this is not where cuts would be made if they were made logically)

If cuts need to be made, ask why the main office staff has tripled in the last 10 years, when no other area of GVR staffing has? Ask why most of the people in the main office earn paid time off faster per hour than anyone else?

Ask why it makes sense to cut about $880 per-part-time employee, when increased turnover is about $1,200 per person? Keeping staff working is much cheaper.

We need to make these jobs better, so staff wants to stay, and that’s not going to happen with cutting these benefits.

Why did I quit my job at GVR? It was because there is a gag order on GVR employees, and I truly believe that these cuts to part-time and evening staff should not be made.

I feel that the quality of staff will go down and turn over of part time staff will go up.

Please help me let the board know that it is important to you to keep the best people working in our centers, and let them know that this is not the way to do it.

Cindy Blair is an ex-GVR custodian at Desert Hills rec center. She says she worked for GVR for almost 2 years and one of the main reasons she applied was because they had paid time off. The views expressed are the writer’s own and do not reflect those of this newspaper.