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Many things need to be considered in budget decisions that affect current employees.  The following resources contain information about what several counties or the state have used when laying off employees, offering early retirement incentives or things to consider before enacting voluntary or mandatory reduction in hours.

Lay-off packets (samples from Ramsey County  and State of Minnesota)

These are only a few of the questions that should be asked when considering possible reductions in staff hours in response to a budget crisis.  Each county will have to weigh its own circumstances about size, number of offices, community expectations, etc.

• If staff voluntarily reduce hours now, will there be a potential future labor contract issue that may cost your county additional money to return to full time hours? Will you need to buy back those hours in labor negotiations?

• Will you incur future labor issues if staff go to part time and maintain full benefits?

• Can you adequately serve the public with the reduction in hours? Consider the costs and benefits to keeping the office open full time and laying off some staff versus reducing office hours to the public and having no or fewer layoffs.