BIDDEFORD — The Biddeford City Council on Tuesday again tabled a discussion pertaining to proposed revisions to sick leave policies for city employees.

Discussion of the new policy was tabled in October following tense public debate about the revisions, in which employees would have unused sick time swept into a deferred compensation retirement plan based on the number of unused sick hours accrued.

Hours would be swept at the end of each year, and payments made to the employees accounts each following July.

“We’ve tried to come up with a system that protects the current employees the best we can and be able to take those employees coming in the door and change the system as it is in the marketplace,” said City Manager Jim Bennett. “There are some upsides and some downsides.”

The revisions, written prior to November, said that any employee who has an excess of 200 hours on the books as of Nov. 1 would have all their excess hours swept up to 480 hours to be stored in a separate sick bank. Any hours left in the bank would be paid to employees upon separation from the city based on their current hourly wage, factored at 50 percent.

During a council meeting in October, some city employees said they would be losing available sick time as a result of the changes, and felt as if they were being punished for not taking time off work.

Starr Cloutier, executive assistant at the Biddeford Police Department, told the council on Tuesday that, under the new policy, her accrued sick time hours would be drastically cut, resulting in a lower salary payout.

“This will cause my current balance of sick leave, 640 hours valued at $17,468, to be reduced to 200 hours, a value of $5,446. The remainder of the hours, 440 hours, will be placed in a separate account and available to me only in need of (family medical leave).”

Cloutier said the city should honor the contracts of its current non-union employees.

“I understand that programs and benefits change during the course of employment regardless of your employer. I do not understand how benefits awarded to employees can be taken away during the course of employment.”

Councilor John McCurry said he believes even five or 10 days is enough sick time for a person to take in a given year, and said he thinks the city shouldn’t allow employees to rack up hours continuously with no sweeping.

“You can’t put faces to any of this stuff when you’re doing it, because we all know everybody.“You gotta look at the whole system,” McCurry said. “If I had my way, the sick time through the whole entire city would be something that would be fair to use as sick time, not something to create a bank where you’re putting 700 hours away with a value that is just increasing.”

Councilor Michael Ready disagreed with McCurry’s statement, saying the current employees have been promised a certain policy and to change it while they are still employed would be unfair.

“The difference between these folks and the union is there is no negotiation,” Ready said. “In the end, we say, ‘Here’s what’s going to happen,’ and it really falls on us to make sure what they’ve already earned gets taken care of.”

“I have a problem with changing what they’ve already earned to a new plan. We have a commitment to honor what we hired somebody at,” Ready continued. ”I think we make a mistake when we change the rules in the middle of the game and affect whatever has been put aside.”

The revisions include different payout percentages based on a worker’s period of employment. Those who have been employed by the city less than 10 years would receive no payout upon separation; those employed more than 10 but less than 25 years would receive a 25 percent payout; and those employed more than 25 years would receive a 50 percent payout.

If an employee reaches age 65 or retires, he or she would receive a 100 percent payout of unused sick hours.

Bennett said the new plan would address expensive payouts to employees that could be liabilities to the city, and said it could benefit some employees, although it disadvantage some others.

“If you look at what’s currently on the books, depending on the employee, they may or may not end up doing better in the long run,” Bennett said. “This is a different system but it tries to deal with the long-term liabilities.”

Councilor Bob Mills agreed with Ready, saying he didn’t see the changes as being “fair and admirable” to the city’s employees.

Councilor Rick Laverriere motioned to again table the discussion for a later date, resulting in a stalemate between the eight councilors present. Mayor Alan Casavant broke the tie, and in a 5-4 vote the discussion was tabled.

— Staff Writer Alan Bennett can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or abennett@journaltribune.com.