DuPage County Board Member Wants to Reduce Vacation Time for County Employees

DuPage County Board member Jeff Redick (District 2) proposed a plan to modify employee time-off benefits that would save the county up to $28 million in 20 years.

“Employee benefits are estimated to increase by nearly 40 percent in four years, and the county’s budget cannot keep up with these rising costs. This proposal provides long-term sustainability that better reflects the current economy,” said Redick, an Elmhurst resident.

Redick, who serves as chairman of the Ad Hoc Human Relations Committee, unveiled a proposal this week that would change DuPage County employee vacation time, sick time and personal days.

“We spent a great deal of time comparing our employee benefits to other public and private sector entities, and these changes fall in line with what is currently standard practice,” Redick said.

The proposal calls for a reduction in vacation time accrued by employees. For example, employees with up to four years of service currently earn 12 vacation days; the proposal would decrease that by two days. In exchange for the reduction in vacation time, employees would receive two more personal days. Redick said this change, alone, would save the county as much as $800,000 per year.

Redick also recommended the board consider standardizing sick time to provide employees with eight sick days annually. Currently, employees with up to seven years of service accrue six sick days a year, and that gradually increases with more years of service. Redick said the change to sick day accrual would save the county between $8 million and $12 million over the next 20 years.

“The important thing to note is that this proposal is aimed at not taking away any benefit that has already been accrued, but simply changes our policy on a go-forward basis. This proposal is fair to our employees and fair to the hard-working taxpayers of DuPage County,” Redick said.