Workers seek help handling gas costs

Schedule flexibility, telecommuting urged at UNC-CH

CHAPEL HILL -- Employees at UNC-Chapel Hill say the university can do more to help them save gas money.

The Employee Forum, which represents nonfaculty staff members, plans to call on UNC-CH to promote telecommuting, flexible work hours and alternative transportation. Forum delegates will discuss the issue Wednesday and could put it to a vote.

"Many of the lower-paid employees live further away," Chairman Ernie Patterson said. "There's a lot of people who have a lot of commuting to do."

An early draft of a proposed resolution contains a chart estimating gasoline costs per month for top administrators and employees, on the basis of how far they live from campus. It said some vice chancellors spend 0.21 to 0.68 percent of their monthly pay on gas, while the average employee spends 3.45 percent.

"The senior members of this administration earning corpulent salaries, live close to the University, and therefore are not nearly as impacted in their work life by rising fuel prices," the draft reads. It also asks for the formation of an "emergency gas price crisis task force" to come up with new strategies.

Though the resolution hasn't been passed, on Monday outgoing UNC Chancellor James Moeser said he thought forming a task force would be a good idea, a university spokeswoman said.

Patterson said that no single solution exists and that changes will have to be tailored to individual jobs. Some employees, he suggested, could work four 10-hour days, saving a day's worth of gas.

Patterson, who manages computer networks for the biology department, said he gave up his parking pass two years ago and started walking or biking from his home in Carrboro.

In the past, the forum has asked the chancellor's office to promote van pools and increase subsidies for them. Currently the university offers $20 a month to registered van pool riders in its commuter alternatives program. Patterson said work schedules need to be flexible so workers can arrive and leave together as well.

The forum, which is made up of about 75 delegates, also has asked the chancellor's office to maximize telecommuting options.

The university's Office of Human Resources encourages departments to be as flexible as possible in allowing alternative work schedules. It says flexible schedules can be used to reduce days that employees commute and help them use mass transit.

But the Employee Forum last year passed a resolution that said many managers had been unwilling to make changes.

The university's commuter alternatives program, which has more than 3,500 members, offers free bus service from nine park-and-ride lots. Program members also get free Triangle Transit bus passes and access to an "emergency ride home" program.

Last month Brenda Malone, associate vice chancellor for human resources, sent a memo to department heads and deans saying flexible scheduling can improve morale.

"With the continuing increases in gas prices, you are once again encouraged to make every effort to work with your employees to identify flexible work arrangements that might ease their commuting challenges," she wrote.