Macon council committee approves city employee severance pay

Macon City Council’s Employee Development and Compensation Committee approved Wednesday a resolution to extend severance pay for laid-off employees according to their lengths of service with the city.

If passed by the full council, the resolution would not apply to the 31 employees laid-off by the city in January.

Some council members were troubled that laid-off employees would only receive one week of severance pay. Shortly after the layoffs, the committee asked Human Resources Director Ben Hubbard to research ways to offer severance pay covering a longer amount of time. After comparing Macon’s policy with policies of nearby and comparable-sized cities, Hubbard recommended establishing a schedule to give severance according to how long an employee has worked for the city.