Issue with lifeguards is unfair labor

Mike Scott and Tom Trager

The article last week titled “Lifeguards, city disagree on staffing”

(Coastline Pilot, April 2) was misleading and has nothing to do with

lifeguard staffing levels. It has everything to do with the city of

Laguna Beach not complying with fair labor standards in regards to

their use of seasonal part time employees. If we want the real story

just ask the city manager, Ken Frank, to provide the following

information:

Provide a list of seasonal part-time employees who worked more

than 1,040 hours a year for the last 10 years. Why hasn’t the city of

Laguna Beach set a cap on the number of hours a seasonal part-time

employees can work without being compensated fairly or reclassified?

Were any of these employees that worked over 1,040 hours per year

reclassified to regular part time with benefits or full time? If yes,

why, were some employees reclassified and others were not?

Provide the city’s past and present hiring and reclassification

practices for all city departments in regards to part-time, regular

part-time (with and without benefits) and full-time employees. Are

these practices consistent within the city? Are they consistent with

other cities in Orange County?

Provide any department reports or memorandums regarding these

issues.

If the above efforts prove to be too arduous, we could always pick

up a phone and call any city in Orange County and ask:

Does your city limit the number of hours a seasonal part-time

employee can work?

If yes, what is the hour limit, when did your city start the hour

limit for part-time employees, and why are they limiting the number

of hours their seasonal employees can work?

This is clearly a story about unfair labor issues that the city

manager, in spite of all our efforts to work within the system over

the last 10 years, continues to force on a lower class of

non-represented employees. With management like this is there any

wonder why there are labor unions and labor lawyers?

* MIKE SCOTT is the Laguna Beach Lifeguard Assn. president. TOM

TRAGER is an advisor to the Laguna Beach Lifeguard Assn.