By MAYRAV SAAR
Last updated: 5:17 am
July 20, 2008
Posted: 4:16 am
July 20, 2008
On Friday, Aug. 8, 17,000 government employees in the state of Utah will have the day off.
Jealous? How about now: Those same employees will have every Friday off for the next year - without a pay cut - as the state tests out a pilot program designed to conserve energy, cut down costs and improve civil servants' morale.
The three-day weekends will save the state an estimated $3 million in electricity alone and, presumably, make Utah the envy of government employees everywhere. The exception: police officers, prison guards, court employees and public university personnel will not be eligible. Also, state-run liquor stores will stay open on Fridays - because, really, what would be the point?
The program could help the state reduce energy consumption by 20 percent in seven years and cut CO2 emissions by around over 3,000 metric tons, said Jon Huntsman, Jr., the Republican governor of Utah.
"We have to take drastic steps," he said. "This kind of step will help get us there."
Utah is not carpooling this road alone: As the cost of fuel rises along with environmental concerns, an increasing number of municipalities are experimenting with 4/10 workweeks - in which business days are extended from eight hours to 10 across four days.
Public companies in California, agencies in Alabama, towns in New Jersey and county employees in Suffolk are among those offering workers longer days and shorter weeks, with lawmakers from Hartford to Denver debating the merits of making a similar switch.
But Utah will be the first to try it on such a large scale (beginning next month, most state offices will be open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday), and its pilot program has stirred imaginations across the country.
"There has been a lot of interest," said Huntsman who recently attended a National Governors Association meeting and said he fielded plenty of questions from heads of states. "We met with two or three from the West coast. The East coast may be slow on the uptake, with all due respect."
That may be so, but with the promise of reducing everything from employee disgruntlement to a town's carbon footprint, a few municipalities in New York and New Jersey are already turning off the lights on Thursday night.
Suffolk County, for instance, began a 90-day program this month that allows 568 nonunion employees to work staggered 4/10 workweeks to reduce gas consumption. But County Executive Steve Levy, who signed the bill, said he would instead prefer that employees take a work furlough, an unpaid day off each week, also available under the county's plan.
