QUESTION
What factors contribute to overtime expenses for uniformed employees, and how does the department plan to manage and reduce those costs?
0:38:37
·
133 sec
The New York City Department of Sanitation explains that the main drivers of overtime for uniformed staff are holidays falling on normal collection days and peak vacation months.
- The department has worked to smooth out vacation schedules to reduce summer overtime.
- During holiday weeks, non-critical functions are canceled to reduce overtime needed for collections.
- More efficient use of resources allows collecting all commodities during holidays without instructing residents to hold items.
Justin L. Brannan
0:38:37
Wanna talk about overtime a bit.
0:38:39
What factors contribute to the OT expenses within the uniformed head count, and and how does the department plan to manage and potentially reduce those costs in the upcoming fiscal years?
Jessica Tisch
0:38:50
Sure.
0:38:50
The main drivers of all uniform over time are holidays that fall on normal collection days.
0:38:56
So, you know, those long weekends, as well as peak vacation months often that often coincide with when schools are out.
0:39:05
This year, the department worked to better smooth the vacation schedule to help reduce over time in the summer months.
0:39:12
And during weeks of holidays, the department cancels all noncritical functions in order to reduce the need for overtime to staff our collection, Chase, as we call it, requires us to run additional checks trucks to collect, set out material from the holiday.
0:39:28
Through the more efficient use of our resources, we have been able to collect all four commodities during holiday weeks.
0:39:35
Therefore, no longer instructing residents to hold.
0:39:38
For example, they're recycling to the following week.
Justin L. Brannan
0:39:41
Have we gotten a I I know you and I have spoken about this.
0:39:45
Is there a a price tag for figuring out the pickup schedule between Christmas and New Year's, that week is always rough.
Jessica Tisch
0:39:55
That that week is rough, and the reason it's rough is it's generally 2 holidays back to back.
0:40:04
This year, on 1 of those weeks, we chased all 4 commodities, and on 1 of those weeks, we didn't chase all 4 commodities.
0:40:14
But again, coming up with a price tag is is hard to do because the new thing we've done is we've canceled all of the other functions, meaning we don't run TNT, for example, during those chase weeks.
0:40:29
We call in some of our sanitation police officers to go back and work on the truck.
0:40:35
We basically throw now everything at collection so that residents don't see the city's streets look meaningfully dirtier during holiday weeks when you don't want to do it dirtier.