Oregon Public Broadcasting

The city of Portland is at odds with its unionized workers over whether employees should be paid for the time they missed Monday morning. Rob Manning reports.

At issue are statements like this one Monday from Portland mayor-elect, Sam Adams, telling city workers to come in late.

Sam Adams: “We encourage people to come in at the request of the mayor at 10 a.m. this morning.”

But when the city later announced that employees had to use personal time to cover the two snow-day hours, the union cried foul.

The local chapter of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees plans to file a grievance.

Spokesman Don Loving says the city’s practice is basically a joke.

Don Loving: “If you follow the directive you’ve been told, and you don’t show up, you lose money. If you disobey what you’ve been told, so to speak, you get paid. That doesn’t make any sense.”

Loving says the grievance is to force the city to enact a policy more like Multnomah County's.

That was changed after mixed messages a few years ago upset employees as well as taxpayers.