Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 8, 1993 TAG: 9304080133
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
`FULL-TIME TEMPORARY,' NO BENEFITS
Alicia Foliaco has worked full time in the Roanoke County Department of Engineering and Inspections for more than five years.But she gets no vacation pay.
No health insurance.
No pension plan.
No sick leave.
Foliaco - a widow putting the last of three children through college - is one of about a dozen full-time county employees who have worked for more than a year with no benefits.
County Administrator Elmer Hodge said he approved the hiring of so-called "full-time temporary" workers to hold down payroll costs.
But one county supervisor says Hodge has gone too far.
"It's criminal for us to work people full time for 12 months and not give them benefits," Vinton District Supervisor Harry Nickens said Tuesday at a budget work session.
Nickens said it was unconscionable for the county to create a subclass of full-time employees in the name of economy.
So-called temporary workers who are employed year-round should receive the same benefits given to the county's 615 regular employees, he said.
"That's a decision I made to save the county money," Hodge replied.
Later, Nickens said he did not understand - if the issue was money - how Hodge could leave some full-time workers with no benefits while recommending that most county employees be paid more for unused sick leave.
On Wednesday, Hodge announced that he would include $45,000 in next year's budget to give benefits to 14 employees who have worked full time for the county for at least a year.
The Board of Supervisors will have to approve the appropriation before the benefits can go into effect July 1.
County spokeswoman Anne Marie Green said the county did not set out to keep "temporary" workers on the payroll without benefits indefinitely.
Green said the practice evolved from the Board of Supervisors' desire to meet the rising demand for county services without adding permanent staff.
The county's reliance on less-costly personnel - part-timers and "temporary full-timers" - grew last year when the board imposed a hiring freeze for 18 permanent positions, she said.
"You say, `I'm bringing someone on for three months.' Then it's three months later and you still need them," Green said.
The 14 full-time employees who have worked more than a year without benefits include refuse collectors, laborers and custodians.
Nickens said he did not realize the extent of the problem until one of the employees, a secretary, brought it to his attention about two months ago.
"These people want medical insurance," he said.
Foliaco, 61, has never received benefits in the five years she has worked as an engineer's aide for the county.
But Foliaco was thrilled to get the job. She needed to support her three children after the death of her husband. And she had experience in a similar job in her native country of Colombia.
"I said to God, `Thank you for my job.' "
As much as she loves her work, Foliaco sometimes wished the county would give her benefits, particularly health insurance.
"I pay my Blue Cross because I am 61 years old and I wonder, `God, if I get sick, what am I going to do?' Every year, it goes up; and I don't know if I could afford it."
Foliaco was thrilled when told that Hodge had recommended giving benefits to all full-time employees with at least a year's service.
"That's wonderful! I don't believe," she said.