Billerica Personnel Board votes to replace bylaw with employee handbook

BILLERICA — November 20, 2025 — Billerica Personnel Board unanimously backs replacing its decades-old personnel bylaw with a streamlined employee handbook. The board voted Thursday to direct staff to draft warrant article language reducing the bylaw to its charter-required minimum — primarily suspension and removal procedures — while routing all other workplace rules into a handbook that can be updated without a town meeting vote. Human Resources Director Michelle and Town Manager Chris, both present, supported the move, with Chris describing the current document as reading "like a union contract" and noting it has not been substantially revised since approximately 2010. Roughly 25 non-union employees are currently covered under the bylaw. Chris advised against restoring sick-leave buyback for non-union staff while the town is mid-negotiation with all its unions, saying doing so "would be going backwards" on a benefit the town has been working to scale back. The board also agreed to attend a Charter Review Committee meeting, tentatively December 11, to coordinate on any bylaw language that intersects with the town charter ahead of a planned spring town meeting warrant article.