Former ClearWater Solutions employees will soon receive remaining or unused vacation and sick time accumulated during their time with the City of Greenville.
At Tuesday’s Greenville City Council meeting, the board approved to reevaluate the remaining or unused hours that city employees who transferred to ClearWater Solutions earned before ClearWater’s contract was terminated.
The employees who were working under ClearWater and chose to return to work for the city after ClearWater’s contract ended were able to transfer their leftover vacation and sick time they had accumulated prior to working under ClearWater.
“Those employees that returned to work for the city requested that we give them the time that they earned when they originally worked for us,” Mayor Errick Simmons said. “I think we should because it is the time they had before they left.”
The vacation and sick time employees earned through ClearWater was not eligible to be given to those employees.
ClearWater background
In October 2016, ClearWater Solutions officially took command over the city’s public works, utility and fleet departments.
Greenville City Council members decided to privatize the three city departments with ClearWater during a budget session in August 2016.
ClearWater services included water billing, customer service, meter reading, water treatment and distribution, wastewater treatment and sewer collections, stormwater management, public works, including building and grounds maintenance, traffic, right of way maintenance, fleet services, street maintenance GIS and action line calls for all services listed.
Employees that transferred to ClearWater from the city reportedly received a 5 percent pay increase at the beginning of the partnership and ClearWater offset employee insurance costs from the city cost in October 2016.
In March this year, the contract with ClearWater was terminated because the council agreed to take all services in house, due to mounting financial problems in the city.
