MARSHALL — The city of Marshall will be trying out a voluntary furlough policy for some of its employees over the next year as a way to possibly save money.

The policy would allow some full-time city employees to request unpaid time off, said Marshall Human Resources Manager Sheila Dubs.

“Staff believe that there would be benefits to both the city and employees if this were approved,” Dubs said. “The city would realize a budget savings while minimizing the impact to operations, and our employees would benefit by having the flexibility to take time off without having to utilize leave accrual or impact their benefit elections.”

Marshall City Council members voted to approve a pilot program of the furlough policy at their regular Tuesday meeting.

Dubs estimated about 50 city employees would be affected by the new policy. The voluntary furlough time would be available to non-union, full time employees only.

“Sheila and I have been talking about this policy since at least 2022. I think it’s something that can be offered that may create a benefit to the city and the employee,” said Marshall City Administrator Sharon Hanson.

Dubs said the voluntary furlough policy would be a pilot program for about 15 months, ending on Dec. 31, 2026.

We would be offering employees the opportunity to voluntarily request unpaid time off from work,” she said. “The time off may be as little as an hour, or as much as 80 hours in a calendar year.”

Employees who want to use unpaid time off would need to notify a supervisor of their request.

Dubs said the furlough time policy would apply to non-union, full time employees only. If a salaried employee is approved to take furlough time, “We would need to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act,” Dubs said.

The employee taking furlough time would be classified as non-exempt for the week in which the furlough time is used, and then return to exempt status.

“One of the most important pieces of this policy is that furlough time off cannot create additional overtime, either for the employee taking the furlough time or for other employees,” Dubs said.

She said staff didn’t think it would be possible to offer furlough time for members of the Law Enforcement Labor Services union, because backfilling vacant positions would create more overtime.

“If we have success with this furlough policy as a budgetary savings and employees remain interested, we would like to come back to the council in 2026, to consider incorporating this into our personnel policy manual,” Dubs said.

“I really support us doing this as a pilot test,” said council member Craig Schafer.

The voluntary furlough time could be helpful for employees in situations that come up unexpectedly, like family needs, he said.