The Select Board unanimously approved the town’s first official employee handbook Tuesday night, with vacation time emerging as a hot-button topic.

Under the 2022 policy, most town employees were allotted two weeks of vacation per year, with some higher-level staff receiving three weeks, according to Human Resources Manager Maryanne McMaster. At nine or ten years, employees would have been eligible for four weeks of vacation. The language has been revised to allow for additional vacation time as well as three personal days, starting in the new year.

“I confirmed with legal that all of these changes should not start until January,” McMaster said, adding that there is no “grandfather clause.”

All town employees are now on an even playing field when it comes to vacation, with many at lower levels receiving more time off than before. Employees who have been with the town for one to five years will receive three vacation weeks, six to 14 years four weeks of vacation, and 15 years at the job and on will receive five weeks.

“I think that’s pretty standard,” Select Board Chair Katie Phelan said. “We don’t have a lot of leverage for hiring these days, so I think we shouldn’t cut our noses to spite our faces.”

Phelan noted that the extra week is simply an option and not all employees may use it. She added that staff returning from vacation happier could result in improved job performance.

“I think it’s important that we value that, and we’ve been highly criticized for not putting enough value in employees recently,” Phelan said. “If this is something that we can do that has no cost to the tax payer, we should consider doing it.”

McMaster added that Swampscott is not as competitive with the salary portion of job offers, and the additional vacation time may attract new employees. She also pointed out that the town provides “flex time” and “comp time,” benefits not offered by all municipalities.

“We’re not on the high end of salary, so our salary is…depending on the job, not as attractive as other towns,” McMaster said. “Three weeks is definitely attractive to a candidate, but it could also be negotiated in the hiring process.”

She said a lot of neighboring communities do have level allotments based on time in a position. Many other towns and cities offer two weeks of vacation from the time of hire. 

McMaster said that if a potential candidate is “pretty adamant” about additional vacation time, it would be up to the town administrator’s discretion to approve. Select Board Member Danielle Leonard said she did not like that option, however.

“Once you do that for someone, you kind of set a precedent and you start that ball rolling,” Leonard said. 

At the beginning of the conversation, Select Board Member Mary Ellen Fletcher spoke up against the additional vacation times.

“I’m not in support of three weeks vacation for somebody who is in their early years and is getting the same amount of vacation as someone who is seven, eight, nine years,” Fletcher said. “I would really rather see it one through five years, two weeks. Six to 11 years, three weeks. 12 to 15 years, four weeks.”

Interim Town Administrator and Director of the Department of Public Works (DPW) Gino Cresta said Fletcher’s proposal corresponds with the DPW contracts, which just has the later limits as six to ten years and 11 to 15.

Leonard, however, called the idea of providing two weeks vacation at the start of employment “paltry.”

“I don’t think it puts us in an advantageous position when people are comparing us to neighboring towns,” Leonard said, though she agreed with the structured year-based tiers. “I do not want to see where we currently are, with based on your level of position dictates how many weeks you get. I think that’s completely unfair to those at the lower levels of the totem poll.”

She acknowledged the town likely can’t compete on salary, so “anywhere we can actually augment what we’re offering” would be beneficial.

Select Board Member David Grishman agreed with Leonard, calling the suggested two weeks for people starting their careers something that would lead the town to “struggle to fill some of these roles.”

“I think we have to be much more competitive,” Grishman said. “If the salaries are going to be a little bit lower, there should be some benefits to the employees of the town, and I think three weeks would be that.”

Select Board Chair Katie Phelan also noted that this “may be a small give that might yield us a benefit.”