Seasonal City Employees Seek Part-Time Status

LOS ANGELES —  Accused of creating an unfair working environment, city officials agreed Wednesday to study the possibility of converting thousands of seasonal municipal government jobs into part-time positions.

The seasonal city employees contend they have been taken advantage of because they work the same hours as part-time employees, but are classified as intermittent workers and are granted no benefits. Most of them are assigned to the city’s Recreation and Parks Department, performing such tasks as organizing events at recreation and senior centers.

“We want to draw attention to a practice that we think is despicable within the city of Los Angeles,” Marie Monrad, a representative from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, told the council on Wednesday. “We have 6,000 employees who work in this never-land status of intermittent employee. . . . The Recreation and Parks Department could not function if it were not for these employees.”

Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg urged her colleagues to support the study as the first step toward fixing the problem.

“We need to take a look at this issue,” Goldberg said. “We have long-time, committed and dedicated employees who have worked without benefits of any type. Some of these positions are truly intermittent. Many of them are not.”