Norfolk said Monday it will furlough 550 part-time city employees — more than 10% of its workforce — and switch other workers’ schedules in response to continued requests from Gov. Ralph Northam for residents to stay at home amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The announcement came Monday morning, before Northam officially issued a stay-home order for the state.
It was a dramatic departure from staffing plans discussed by City Manager Chip Filer last week, when he said all city employees were working at home or in shifts to limit potential exposure and that he didn’t anticipate furloughing any staff unless the measures to combat the virus lasted for three or four months.
The 550 employees largely come from the city’s libraries and parks departments, which have been closed to the public for the past couple of weeks and where the vast majority of staff were already working from home.
Essential staff, like those in police, fire, 911 and utilities, will continue working. Some, however, will be on modified shifts.
City spokeswoman Lori Crouch said Monday morning’s change was in response to Gov. Ralph Northam’s pleas on Friday that residents stay home.
“The mandate to the city employees is to stay home and be healthy,” Crouch said. “We’re down to mission critical.”
In recent days, Virginia has seen hundreds of new coronavirus cases and several more deaths linked to the outbreak.
Among Norfolk’s changes has been cancelling bulk trash pickup, which Crouch said requires two employees in the same truck. Regular trash and recycling, which can be done with one employee in a truck, will continue.
The city has also opened all parking garages for use, free of charge, and removed parking staff from the garages. Some of those staffers will be furloughed as well.
In a press release, the city said those furloughed employees would get two paychecks in April and then would be asked to return when city operations return to normal.
Besides nonessential employees teleworking, Norfolk had been putting plans into place last week to reduce contact as much as possible.
The city implemented staggered shifts for department administrators ensure that if someone is sick, the whole leadership team doesn’t go down at once.
That extended to rank-and-file staff in some essential departments too.
“We’re getting a little nervous about having a situation of not having a certain segment of your staff in reserve,” Filer said last week.
The Norfolk Police Department has put about 10% of the sworn force in “reserve status” — basically telling them to stay home and stay healthy in case an outbreak occurs somewhere within the department.
In the Utilities Department, which runs Norfolk’s drinking water and wastewater systems, the staff has been divided in half to try to keep a chunk of the workforce healthy. Half report to work one day, and the other half report the next day, working 12-hour shifts to compensate for having half as many people on at a time.
Filer said last week this is different than weathering a hurricane or snowstorm, where the event happens in a day or two and then city staff spring back into action to deal with the fallout.
“One thing that has been harder about this … is recognizing that there are people in city admin who could get sick or even die,” Filer said. “[C]losing down the buildings, thinning out the workforce physically reporting … I feel like we’ve done what we can do on our end.”
Ryan Murphy, 757-739-8582, ryan.murphy@pilotonline.com