60-day furlough eyed for Tinian employees

Tinian is looking at implementing a two-month furlough for municipal employees if all other austerity measures being considered fail, according to Mayor Jose P. San Nicolas.

Employees affected by the move will be in non-essential departments and services, he added, saying a furlough is being considered because of the municipality’s “very limited” operational budget for the current fiscal year.

Due to a drop in revenues, Tinian expects a shortfall of $500,000 to $800,000 for personnel costs this fiscal year.

“Because I hate to terminate people, we’re looking at a furlough instead. This way, we can help them keep their jobs and they would only be asked to temporarily stop from working for a certain period of time, like two months,” San Nicolas said.

At present, the municipality has 139 employees, most of whom the mayor wants to keep—at least until the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30, 2009.

San Nicolas emphasized, however, that the furlough would only be as a last resort if employees do not agree to alternative austerity measures that may be implemented by his office.

All employees are currently working 80 hours on a biweekly schedule, San Nicolas said. This may go down to as low as 64, depending on the agreement between the mayor’s office and employees.

“We are presently doing a study and evaluation of all the personnel and financial records of the municipality. Our objective is to come up with the best alternative way on how we can survive in this existing economic hardship. If employees agree to 64 work hours or a reduction in their salaries, we may not consider the furlough,” he said.

He conceded that this office has yet to start any austerity measures, much more terminate the contracts of employees.

Employees at the Tinian Health Center, Department of Public Safety, Immigration, and Public Works are considered essential municipal personnel and will not be affected by the possible furlough, San Nicolas said.

An evaluation of each personnel’s performance is also ongoing at the municipality relative to the austerity plans, he added.

San Nicolas said that he cannot just enforce the furlough on all employees as revenue-generating projects may also be affected by the move.

“We’re doing projects to make money. If we will lay off personnel on those important projects, the result will be more chaotic for Tinian and we will prevent that from happening,” he said.

The mayor admitted that Tinian cannot depend solely on the casino and potential casino investors at present, citing the global crisis that contributed to the scaling down of many businesses.

Since 1998, Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino has been the lone casino operator on the island, remitting a portion of its revenue to pay for the salaries of local employees.