Douglas County Sheriff calls Roseburg's 32-hour work week "reckless"

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Ore. – “I believe this is a reckless policy change on behalf of the City of Roseburg.” That’s the message from Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin in a statement he released Friday expressing his concerns with a 32-hour work week. A policy he says was recently adopted by the City of Roseburg in regards to a 3-year union contract for the city’s police department.

In his statement, Hanlin says, “this is an act introduced by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont) that would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to reduce the standard workweek from 40 hours per week to 32 hours per week.”

Under the contract adopted by Roseburg last month, employees would work 32 hours in a week with no loss in pay. Additionally any hours over 32, would be paid out at an overtime rate. The sheriff says for a police officer, this would result in a 20% pay bump which would ultimately fall onto taxpayers. It would also make officers with the Roseburg Police Department among the highest paid officers in Oregon.

According to the sheriff, the city’s hope is to improve work conditions and morale as well as drawing more interest in open positions.

However, he says, “the concept of a 32-hour work week will require Roseburg to either hire more officers to cover the reduced hours, or it will result in less police on the streets patrolling our neighborhoods.” He also said that the 32-hour work week is not right for all fields and would be challenging to implement in industries that require urgency and specific hours of coverage.

Hanlin went on to say he does not support the policy change of a 32-hour work week.