StarBulletin.com

New agency to try 4-day work week


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POSTED: Wednesday, October 08, 2008

The main office for the Health Department will be the next state agency to experiment with a four-day work week.

               

     

 

 

4-day schedule

        New Health Department office hours:

       

General business hours:

       

» 7:15 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Thursday

       

Vital Records:

       

» Birth, death and marriage certified copies - 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

       

» Marriage licenses - 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

       

Offices closed Fridays, weekends and holidays.

       

Certified copies of birth and marriage certificates are available online at www.ehawaiigov.org/ohsm.

       

       

Starting Monday, the 269 employees at the department's Kinau Hale on Punchbowl Street will work Monday through Thursday and shut the building on Fridays.

Dr. Chiyome Fukino, health director, said that although she and division directors will be available five days a week, the main office will be closed on Fridays.

Also Fukino said that although the office will be closed on Fridays, marriage licenses will be still be available from private agents authorized to issue licenses.

The action comes as the state is wrapping up a 10-week experiment with the 111 members of the Human Resources Department, which also switched to a four-day, 10-hour-a-day work week.

Marie Laderta, human resources director, said the experiment showed energy savings of 2.3 percent.

“;Employees appeared more enthusiastic on Mondays,”; Laderta said during a news conference yesterday at the state Capitol to announce the Health Department shift.

The state had anticipated challenges to the four-day week because of child care or elder care and bus schedules, but Laderta said the state employees did not have any major problems.