Picture Butte council amends cellphone policy

By Nikki Jamieson
Sunny South News

Picture Butte town council has amended a communications policy following an issue brought up from the pandemic.

During their regular Aug. 24 meeting, Picture Butte town council approved a revised Computer and Telecommunication policy for the town.

The policy had been previously updated during council’s regular March 23 meeting, and in it, it included a section that said that all employees would be required to pay any extras if they went above the $35 limit for cellphone usage. When the COVID-19 outbreak occurred, however, it meant they were using their devices more frequently as they worked from home.

“When we originally did it, obviously we weren’t thinking of COVID and working from home,” said Michelle Overbeeke, director of corporate services. “It caused a bit of issues (and) increased our costs for cellphones and stuff, for people working from home. So we were just making the modification that if the person is home because of COVID or they’re home because they’re sick and they’re still working, that cellphone dollar limit would not be taking place.”

The revision for the policy reads “All employees will be bound to no more than $35 a month of cellphone usage. Any amounts above this will be paid by the employee. The $35 per month limit will be removed if a manager is required to work from home due to provincial requirements or when a health issue requires that a manager work from home.”

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