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Q&A on the Merc contractAnswers to some questions members have asked about provisions of the Guild's contract with the San Jose Mercury News: also see Health/Safety page
Comp time or overtime? Guild issues guidelines to help Mercury News members address the overtime/compensatory time issue. MN hands out company handbook "As far as we're concerned, there is no handbook until the company and the unions have reached agreement on all of its terms," says Luther Jackson. But should you sign the page? Aug. 26, 2002 Participating in political rallies This is the Guild's response to the issue of members participating in anti-war or other political rallies. The relevant section of the Guild contract on Outside Activity (Article XVI) reads: "Without permission in writing from the Employer, no employee shall use the name of the Employer or his/her connection with the Employer or any featured title or other material of the Employer to exploit in any way his/her outside endeavor." Although a Guild official did participate in the committee that drafted the ethics policy, the company distributed its proposed policy before it completed negotiations with the union over the final draft. In an August 30, 2002, letter to the Mercury News, the Guild said it remained willing and available to complete negotiations on the issue. The company never responded. Therefore, the Guild does not formally recognize the policy. If you feel that you have been unfairly denied an opportunity to participate in outside activities, please contact a Guild steward or the guild office Feb. 13, 2003 Guild members have the right to use up to five days (pro-rata for part-time employees) of their paid sick time to care for an ill child, spouse or parent. This is a result of the California Employment Sick Leave Act (CESLA) also known as AB 109. The CESLA was enacted several years ago. With CESLA, you may use a portion of your annual sick leave accrual, five days for full-time Guild-covered employees, to care for certain family members. CESLA defines illness as any sickness, including colds, flu, etc. Illness does NOT have to qualify as a serious health condition unlike the Family and Medical Leave Act or the California Family Rights Act. If you have any questions or problems about using your sick leave for an ill family member covered under the Act, please contact the Guild office Here are a few basic tips from the Guild concerning the Mercury News' annual evaluation process.
The basics
Our concerns about the evaluation process We are always concerned about the objectivity of evaluations. Often they are subjective documents trying to masquerade as precise, scientific job studies. The Guild's vision We think your supervisor's chief role should be to support you in your work, not to be a disciplinarian. Your supervisor should ask you on a daily basis: "What can I do to support you and to help you do an even better job?" What can you do?
Mercury News travel and entertainment reimbursement policy (Effective May 1, 2001) This memorandum is in response to a request by the Mercury News that employees sign a form accompanying the Travel and Entertainment Reimbursement Policy that states: "I acknowledge receipt of the Travel & Entertainment policy and agree to follow the procedures set forth. I also understand that failure to comply with these procedures will lead to disciplinary action up to and including termination." It is the Guild�s position that members not sign the acknowledgment form because the paper has unilaterally implemented the policy without any prior bargaining with the union. Here�s some background. While Mercury News executives are free to express their views on what they consider grounds for discipline, the fact is that discipline can be meted out only under the terms of the Guild contract. The Guild does not recognize the Travel and Entertainment Reimbursement Policy. It was unilaterally issued, and, as such, conflicts with requirements of federal labor law. It is the union's position that we evaluate the specific facts and circumstances regarding each alleged violation of company policy. Based on that analysis, we then determine whether to contest the allegation based on whether we feel the company had "good and sufficient cause" for disciplining the individual. Please call the office if you have questions. You have a right to have a shop steward Q When a supervisor called me into the office on a disciplinary matter last year, I didn't know I had the right to have a Guild representative present. I was called in again recently. This time I asked for a Guild representative. I was told the meeting was going to be held at that time, so I had no chance to get a representative to attend. What are my rights? A Anytime you are called into a manager's office for a disciplinary reason, or even if you have reason to believe it might be a disciplinary matter, you have the right to Guild representation. This is not a contractual matter. This is federal labor law, upheld by the United States Supreme Court in two decisions interpreting the National Labor Relations Act. The court ruled that a threatened employee's request for a shop steward is a basic expression of "concerted activity" for the purpose of collective bargaining, and therefore protected under the law. But there are a few things you should know: You have a right to a union representative in a meeting with management only if you request one. You don't have to ask for help, although if you do, the boss can't say no. But you don't have any choice in who that union rep will be. You may want a particular shop steward present, but you can't delay the meeting if that person isn't available. Basically, any shop steward will do. Again, you must have a reasonable belief that discipline would result from such an investigatory meeting. This doesn't apply to routine discussions of work issues between boss and employee. If you ask for a union rep, the boss doesn't have to interview you but can continue an investigation into the issue that may result in discipline. The manager does not have to negotiate with the union rep during an investigatory interview. Your union rep is there to assist you, may attempt to clarify facts, and is a witness. This is the most critical time to have representation. The real debate over whether discipline is warranted would take place during grievance meetings between the Guild and the company. By and large, San Jose Mercury News managers follow the rules for employee representation by union stewards. But when a manager denies you union representation, he or she violates federal labor law. Q The Guild contract lists different pay scales, depending on how much experience I have. What counts as experience? A Experience means different things, depending on where you work at the Mercury News, and whether you are a full-time or part-time employee. In the Editorial Department, it means the time you were employed in comparable work as an editorial employee of a daily or weekly newspaper, a wire or picture service, news magazine or news and feature syndicate - including the Mercury News. That means, for example, a new employee who worked for the Associated Press for three years before being hired at the Mercury News would be slotted on the pay scale at the after-three years level, and would reach top scale in three more years. In the Advertising Department, experience means all previous advertising work in daily or weekly newspapers, or in space buying or preparation of ad copy in the advertising department of a commercial firm: in other words, the buying, selling and preparation of ads. In all other departments covered by the Guild contract, experience means regular employment in similar work in newspapers or other businesses. If you're a part-timer at the Mercury News, you gain experience credit based on actual hours worked, not years of employment. When a new employee fills out his or her application for Guild membership, the union staff double checks the experience you list with the pay scale the company has put you on. Sometimes we find a discrepancy in which a new employee was underpaid. Q The head of my department at the Mercury News has posted a seniority list that shows someone who started here after me has more seniority. I was told the date listed was that person's Knight Ridder seniority, not Mercury New seniority. Which counts? A The date you came into Guild jurisdiction at the Mercury News, generally your date of hire, determines your seniority at the newspaper. A Knight Ridder hire date at another newspaper doesn't count because seniority is a subject of the Guild contract with the Mercury News, not other KR properties. In cases in which an employee was hired in a non-Guild position and later transfers to a job in Guild jurisdiction, that person's seniority is based on the date he or she came under contract coverage. Seniority is absolute only in determining your vacation preference. When there is a conflict, the senior person gets the time off, provided vacation time had been requested before Dec. 31 of the previous year. In other areas of the union contract, such as those dealing with promotions or layoffs, seniority is a factor but not absolute. But that doesn't prevent the company from giving an employee vacation based on KR service. It often is done when someone transfers from another KR newspaper. So it's possible that a coworker who came to the Mercury News after you were hired could get more vacation, but you would have first choice when to take it. Q I know we get two weeks of paid sick leave a year at the Mercury News. Yet some of my co-workers took more than two weeks last year for surgery or major illness. How did they get more time off? A They didn't use up all of their sick leave from previous years, so they carried it over in a sick leave bank to use in later years. You accumulate sick leave at a rate of one week for each six months of service. This is calculated on a calendar-year basis, or pro-rata for shorter periods. Paid sick leave is cumulative, and the unused portion of your sick leave entitlement is carried over from year to year. If you took three days sick leave in 1996, you would carry over seven days into this year, added to whatever you carried over from previous years. The Mercury News calculates sick leave in hours. Some long-term employees have taken little sick leave over the years and have banked hundreds of hours of sick leave. If your health is good, and you have been able to bank unused sick leave, your pay would continue for a long time should you be stricken with a serious illness or injury. In fact, combined with state disability insurance, your salary would continue beyond what you would be entitled to under the contract. If you are enrolled in the Guild's Long Term Disability Insurance program, under which benefits kick in after 90 days, you could receive nearly the equivalent of your take-home pay for as long as you are disabled, for years. The Mercury News can grant sick leave in addition to your entitlement, based on length of service, the nature of your illness or the degree of hardship. Q I'm a part-timer at the Mercury News, working three days a week. If a holiday falls on my regular day off, do I get to take it on another day as full-timers do? A First of all, it depends on whether you work enough hours (minimum 75 hours a month) to qualify for health plan benefits. You work enough hours, so if the holiday falls on one of your normal days off, you will be paid for the holiday pro-rata or be given prorated in-lieu time off, according to the Guild contract. So what does that mean in plain English? For example, you normally work 22.5 hours a week, and you will be paid for that. In addition, to account for the holiday, you would be given 4.5 hours straight-time pay or in-lieu time off. That's the pro rata, figured by dividing your 22.5 hours by five days of a full-time work week. If your hours vary every week, a month's average would be used to compute pay or in-lieu time. If you work on a holiday that falls on one of your regular work days, you get holiday pay for all hours worked, with a minimum of four hours pay. In your case, it's 7.5 hours at time and a half. If the holiday falls on a regular work day and you take it off, you just get straight-time pay like everyone else. The rules are different for part-timers who work less than 75 hours a month. If you work the holiday, you get paid for the hours worked, with a minimum of four hours, at the overtime rate. If you don't work on a holiday that falls on your regular work day, you don't get paid. But the Mercury News must offer you another day to work that week so you don't get a short paycheck. The specific language on all of this is in Article IX (e) on Page 23 and Article XI (d), (e) and (f) on Page 28 of the Guild contract with the Mercury News. Q If I leave the Mercury News, do I get severance pay? A If you've worked at the Mercury News for less than five years, you are entitled to severance pay if you are fired for just cause or laid off for economic reasons. This would amount to one week's pay in cash, at the highest rate you earned, for each six months' service or fraction of six months' service. For example, if you worked for three years and 10 months, you would get eight weeks' severance pay on termination. But you don't get severance pay if you are fired for gross misconduct. Nor can you collect if you provoke your own firing in an attempt to get severance pay. After you've been here five years, the rules change. You are vested in the pension plan, and severance pay is one of the two types of benefits in the plan. While one part of the plan provides for a monthly benefit on retirement, the other benefit is the so-called severance pay. You would receive, at the highest pay rate you earned in the previous five years, one week of pay for each six months' service or fraction. Because this is part of the pension plan, not true severance, you cannot be denied the benefit for any reason. (See Article XV, Severance Pay, on page 37 of the Guild contract with the San Jose Mercury News.) Q Some of my co-workers always seem to work through their lunch break, like they're chained to their desks. A few even eat lunch at their desks. Shouldn't people be taking lunch breaks? A Well, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. You can provide for breaks in the law and in the union contract, but you can't necessarily make someone leave his or her desk to go to the cafeteria at lunch time. However, if someone is doing work during their lunch hour, that's supposed to be paid time. And if it stretches the work day beyond 7 1/2 hours, the extra time is at the overtime rate. This is a two-way street. If you're going to work overtime through your lunch break, you better get your supervisor's approval to avoid the possibility of a hassle later. And, while you can't be forced to take a lunch break, the company can't force you not to take one, either. Article X - Hours in the Mercury News contract, section (k) 1. says that unless you request it, you can't be scheduled to stay on the job more than 4 1/2 hours after the start of your shift without a lunch break. Don't get shorted on comp Q My supervisor put out a memo about working on the Christmas holiday. It says people who work Christmas Day will be paid double time and a half, or they could be paid straight time and get another day off. Something doesn't seem right about this. What are we supposed to get for the holiday? A Your supervisor was partially correct. If you work the holiday, you get paid double time and a half. If you don't work it, you get straight time. The double-time- and-a-half pay breaks down to this:
But here's where your supervisor is wrong. If you work the holiday at straight time and took another day off at straight time, you'd be shorting yourself a half day's pay to which you are entitled. That's because a day's work and another day off adds up only to double time. Although there's nothing specific in the Guild contract about taking another day off when you work a holiday, there is provision for comp time instead of overtime pay, and that could apply here. But comp time is at the overtime rate - time and a half. So, if your supervisor agrees, you could work the holiday for time-and-a-half pay and get another day off later. The overtime pay and the day off would add up to double time and a half. Be careful if you work such a deal, however. If your supervisor doesn't agree that you can take the other day off when you choose, I'd advise you to just work the shift for double-time-and-a-half pay. How vacation time is calculated Q I'm starting my fifth year at the Mercury News (starting date February 1996) and was wondering how many vacation weeks that gets me. A Under Article XII - VACATIONS of the Guild contract, you get paid vacation based on continuous employment as of Jan. 1 of the year in which the vacation is to be taken. How much depends on how long you've worked at the newspaper. Here's the schedule:
You accrue vacation the year before you actually take it, based on years of service as of Jan. 1. Although you are starting your fifth calendar year at the Mercury News, your actual fourth anniversary date isn't until February, so you officially had only three years of service on Jan. 1. That means you are entitled to 20 days paid vacation this year, the same as your 1999 vacation. In 2001, you also would get 20 days. In 2002, you get the full 25 days or five weeks. Provisions of the prior contract remain in force until a new one is ratified. Vacation is an accrued benefit that cannot be lost. If you are not able to use your vacation due this year, you do not lose the time. That said, please make every effort to schedule all of your vacation time before the end of the year. If supervisor-imposed limitations on the number of people who can be on vacation at one time prevents you from scheduling all of your remaining vacation, then you should be able to carry-over the time into the following year. Per Article XII of the contract, you can take your 2002 vacation in 2003 if you "agree in writing with the head of (your) department or the Employer that the time of taking the vacation shall be delayed." Please discuss this with your supervisor as soon in the year as you think you might not be able to use all of your vacation time. Q I worked overtime and my supervisor asked me not to put it on my timecard. Is that a violation of the Guild contract? A You bet it is, and a very serious violation at that. If you work overtime -- more than 7.5 hours a day or 37.5 hours a week, the Guild contract provides that you be paid in cash at time and a half or you can take compensatory time off at the same time and a half rate. That means if you worked two hours overtime, you get three hours comp time off. If you opt for comp time, you have to reach mutual agreement with your supervisor about when to take it off. If there is no agreement, you take it at time and a half in cash, and the supervisor has no say about that. State and federal laws also spell out your overtime rights, though our Guild contract is better and prevails. The state law requires overtime payment after eight hours in a day, while the federal law provides for overtime pay after 40 hours in the week. So your overtime payment rights are in the contract and in the law. Your supervisor should know better. Guild position on overtime and comp time With fewer employees and new Mercury News efforts -- such as the Guide publications -- many Guild members are facing significantly increased work pressures. Some have been reluctant to file for overtime or compensatory time because they are concerned that supervisors would view that act as somehow showing a lack of professionalism and loyalty to the Mercury News. The Guild thinks loyalty is a wonderful attribute, but we believe that you can both be loyal and get paid for your time. Professionals, including lawyers and doctors, get paid for their work. Some have raised concerns about whether they will ever be able to use their compensatory time once it's been earned. Please remember that the California Labor Code (Section 204.3 (e) 2) says that any compensatory time that is on the books after two pay periods can, at the employee's option, be converted to cash. Further, accrued compensatory time shall be converted to cash when an employee leaves the Mercury News (Section 204.3 (d) (a) ). Here are some guidelines to help you address the overtime/compensatory time issue.
The Mercury News is in the process of distributing an Employee Handbook to employees. The Handbook states that it "is not intended to supersede or replace the terms and conditions of employment contained in any existing collective bargaining agreement covering union employees at the Mercury News. If any discrepancy arises between the Mercury News policies and policies stated in a collective bargaining agreement, the collective bargaining agreement will prevail." The problems start when the Handbook discusses issues regarding wages, hours and working conditions that are not covered in the Guild contract. It is the Guild's position that the Mercury News must bargain with the union over any issues regarding wages, hours and working conditions that are not covered in the contract. As far as we're concerned, there is no Handbook until the company and the unions have reached agreement on all of its terms. That said, the Guild does not see a problem with your signing the acknowledgement form in the back of the proposed Handbook. Your signature means that you have received a copy of the proposed Handbook but does not signify that you have read or agree with the document. |
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