By DAVID A. MANN, Evening News
David.Mann@newsandtribune.com
As gas prices sit at about $4 per gallon, a Southern Indiana company is doing what it can to give employees a break by moving to a four-day workweek.
"We had been talking about it on and off for a few months because of gas prices," said Amy Gresh, director of human resources for Key Electronics in Jeffersonville.
About 110 employees from its production staff are coming in for 10-hour days Monday through Thursday. Only about 20 percent of employees - accounting, customer liaisons and the like - are now working the traditional five days a week.
Gresh said company officials began musing about it late last year, when gas prices climbed to around $3.50 per gallon. Then early in 2008, when prices neared $4, employees began noticing that a good portion of their paychecks were being used to fill up their gas tanks, she said.
The company consolidated its second and third shifts in order to make the change, Gresh said. There's been no loss in the amount of production.
"We had to be able to meet our production levels - and everybody understood that," she said.
The company does occasionally have overtime work to be done, which used to mean Saturday work for its employees. Now, that's being done on Fridays.
Doug Henderson said the change has been a positive one - "both for my pockets and the company's."
Henderson, a Floyd County resident, commutes about 20 miles per day round trip.
"I think its really benefited the company, and obviously for me its one less day I have to come in," said Chris Stumler, of Starlight.
It's a lower energy bill for the company because it's one less day that the lights are on and the machines are running, he said. Additionally, he believes production will show an improvement because 10-hour days will lead to less starting and stopping.
Stumler commutes to work about 40 miles one-way, in a minivan which gets about 22 mpg.
Employees come out of Clark, Floyd, Harrison and Jefferson counties in Indiana, Gresh said. Many also come from across the Ohio River.
"There's not a lot of things people can control," Gresh said. "They can only move closer to the plant or buy a car that gets better gas mileage."
She said the four-day workweek is a small step the company can take to make the price crunch easier.
"We've gotten very positive feedback."
Key Electronics, which has been in Jeffersonville since 2005, manufactures electronic circuit boards, which are used in countless products, Gresh said. It's located in the North Port Business Center.