Damakant Jayshi

Heeding a legal opinion by Wausau’s city attorney and recommendations from the Wisconsin Department Workforce Development, the Wausau City Council on Tuesday voted against reinstating a waiver for employees’ perfect attendance leave eligibility.

The city’s Human Resources Department backed that stance, saying the City Council had ended the Covid-related exceptions effective July 1, and reiterated that position on three different occasions last year.

“Essentially what this resolution would do is to say if you used sick leave between July 1 and today…the usage won’t count against your PAL eligibility, regardless of why you were out sick,” HR Director Toni Vanderboom said. “If you were out sick before July 1st, (and) if it’s Covid-related, it’s forgiven, but if it was for any other reason, then it’s not forgiven.”

The waiver resolution, if passed, would have reversed an expired policy.

Vanderboom said the city’s PAL system is still active. If the waiver were reinstated, she added, the department staff would have to manually track each individual case of more than 230 employees. PAL policy says if an employee does not take sick leave during a 12-month period, they will earn 12 hours as a reward for the first year. Some leaves do not impact PAL and the city had Covid-related quarantine listed among those.

Alder Lisa Rasmussen said the PAL policy is a problem and should end. Later in the discussion she explained why the PAL issue came up.

“Some of the Covid exposure might be a result of the low vaccine uptake,” she said. “There’s a measure out there that can protect a person and if they choose to not take it, we can’t help that. We should not try to adjudicate the politics of it.”

She also pointed to Assistant City Attorney Nathan Miller’s comment that PAL encouraged people to come to office even when ill. Miller made that assertion in his letter to Vanderboom in March ,when asked to give his opinion whether department heads violate HIPAA if they ask employees about their COVID-19 status or Covid tests.

Common Council President and Dist. 6 Alder Becky McElhaney said the waiver for sick leave usage would be unfair to employees whose departments did not track Covid-related absences from work. According to the city’s HR Director, only the Wausau Police Department and one division of the Department of Public Works and Utilities kept track of Covid quarantines after July 1 last year.

McElhaney, who is also Human Resources Committee chair, added that reversing a policy retroactively is not a good practice.

“Somebody is going to get short end of the stick no matter what we do,” she said.

But Dist. 4 Alder Doug Diny said the reason the matter came to the City Council was because Wausau Police Chief Ben Bliven “had a concern that several of his officers were forced to lose their PAL because they had an exposure to a Covid incident or a person.” He was referring to a Human Resources Committee meeting in March. The matter was tabled that day.

Bliven was following up on what Deputy Chief Matt Barnes said at an HR Committee meeting last year. In October, Barnes shared a situation in which several police officers were exposed to the virus after coming into contact with a deceased man and his wife, both of whom had COVID-19. Barnes said he had to ask the officers to quarantine. These officers lost PAL, and the incident has dominated the PAL debate ever since.

The former alder representing Dist. 5, retired Wausau Police Lt. Jim Wadinski, brought the issue up again at the committee’s April 11 meeting, saying he was in favor of reinstating PAL eligibility for the unvaccinated staff who lost it because they had to take sick leave due to Covid.

Diny indicated support for that measure on Tuesday, saying sick leave was based on an honor system and they should give the employee the benefit of the doubt.

“If they feel they lost the PAL unjustly, they should be able to have it back.” Diny added.

Rasmussen rejected that approach, pointing out that employees knew the provisions were going away.

McElhaney who had voted against Covid-related exceptions in April, reiterated her position about fairness.

“HR policy is built on equity and parity and good sound judgement,” she said. “I am against anything like ‘tell me why you are sick now’?” McElhaney pointed out that the council was not taking away the employees’ paid sick leave, but merely removing a provision regarding PAL.

Dist. 5 Alder Gary Gisselman asked Vanderboom whether employees knew Covid-related exception were ending. She replied the employee were told in May last year that the provision was expiring beginning July 1 (2021). The decision to expire the benefits last year was driven by the availability of vaccines, she added.

In one of her previous memos, Vanderboom said if an employee is sick or subject to quarantine but wishes to remain eligible for PAL, they could either use any paid leave balance such as vacation or personal holiday days other than sick leave, or become vaccinated against COVID-19. Asymptomatic, fully vaccinated employees do not need to quarantine after an exposure.

The waiver motion failed 2-7.

(To read Asst. Attorney Nathan Miller’s March 15 letter advocating against PAL and opinion about HIPAA, click here, and go to page 21.)