It is still months from Christmas, but Yorkton Council set the holiday hours for City Hall at its regular meeting Monday.
"In 2014 December 24th lands on Wednesday with Thursday being Christmas Day and Friday Boxing Day giving a four day stretch for Christmas. December 31st is on a Wednesday. January 1st a Thursday (Statutory day off) and Friday, January 2nd is a working day," explained a report circulated at the meeting.
"On past occasions City Council has approved the closure of City Hall for Christmas where there is one day to work between a Statutory holiday and the weekend. Normally staff has either taken a day of vacation or lieu time to facilitate the closure of City Hall on that date."
The report detailed the reasoning of the hours.
"This year we are asking Council's consideration for the closure of City Hall on January 2nd 2015. This request is different than in past years in that we are not requesting time between Christmas and New Year due to the dates enabling employees to have an extra-long weekend for Christmas. Our request this year is to enable employees to obtain a long weekend after New Year's Day.
"We are also requesting that if City Hall staff wishes to take January 2nd off, they would once again be required to utilize a vacation or lieu day for that purpose. However, if they wish to use those days to "catch up" on year-end work they would then be permitted to come to work, though the offices would remain closed to the public."
By closing City Hall on this day it will enable employees with young families or travelling to use vacation days for Monday December 29th to December 31st and Friday January 2nd 2015 ensuring uninterrupted time off between Christmas and New Year. Thus the reason for this request early in the year, to enable employees to plan their 2014 vacation accordingly.
