By Corey Fischer

Overtime Costs Soar

Mar 1, 2018 | 10:59 AM

Overtime costs were up 26 percent in the City of Vernon last year.

The bill for various staff came to $825,955, an increase of $173,337 from 2016.

Mayor Akbal Mund says part of it was to deal with flooding last spring.

“It was not only emergency situations, but we also had to set up our emergency services for the fire evacuees in the Cariboo, so those came into play,” Mund tells CJIB News.

The province will be reimbursing the City for some of the costs tied to the emergency centre set up for the wildfire evacuees.

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“Through the Emergency Management BC program, the City has been able to apply for a reimbursement of its total costs in the amount of $430,646 of which $89,594 is for labour expense (mostly overtime),” writes Finance Director Debra law in a report to council.

Most of the overtime increase was from the Fire Services Division, which added extra manpower at its outlying fire stations due to the extreme fire hazard.

Law says the rest of the OT costs is “due to a combination of excess minimum manning overtime costs due to staff shortages ($39,995), and council’s decision to man Fire Station 2 and 3 this summer ($83,871).”

The highest overtime bill for the City in recent years was $874,000 in 2012, while last year, was the second highest in the last six years.

“There is situations that occur. I mean water mains break so they have to be fixed. This stuff happens. You try to mitigate overtime, as any business would, but it does happen,” adds Mund.

by Corey Fischer