Please note: New language is underlined. Only Sections that have substantive changes are included below.
ARTICLE I UNION MEMBERSHIP, EMPLOYMENT INFORMATION, PROBATION
1. (a) No fewer than nine (9) out of ten (10) employees coming within the jurisdiction of the Guild as defined in the Preamble to this Agreement and hired after the effective date thereof shall become members of the Guild in the manner and to the extent permitted by law no later than the thirtieth (30th) day after their hire. One (1) person hired within each group of ten (10) hires shall have the option of not becoming a member of the Guild in the manner and to the extent permitted by law no later than the thirtieth (30th) day after hire. The parties will periodically review new hires to insure compliance with this requirement.
(b) The parties agree that the work hours of all part-time employees shall be reviewed after their first six (6) months of work and every six (6) months thereafter at the end of June and the end of December. Part-time employees averaging less than 50% of the normal workweek shall not be required to become members of the Guild and shall not be included in the process of determining the nine (9) out of ten (10) employees who shall become members of the Guild as referenced above.
ARTICLE III JURISDICTION
3. The Publisher is a content company that must be prepared to disseminate via print, wireless, pod cast, the Web, or on platforms yet to be created. Employees are working in a changing environment and with changing technologies. For example, reporters may be required to take photos, videos, prepare and up-date on-line content and engage in a variety of functions not traditionally a part of historical print journalism. Advertising sales persons may perform similar functions with respect to advertising. Nothing contained in this Agreement shall be construed as restricting such assignments for any employee covered by this Agreement.
As a result of changes in the work environment, employees may be required to perform duties and functions that have not historically been part of their job classification. By way of example, but without limitation, reporters and photographers may be required to write stories, edit news material, take photos, produce videos, audio, prepare and up-date on-line content, do voice-overs, re-purpose content and engage in a variety of functions not historically part of their job classification or, in some cases, not even traditionally a part of historical print journalism. Employees in the Advertising Department may perform similar functions with respect to advertising matter.
The Publisher commits to provide employees with the necessary training and equipment to perform such functions.
The Publisher recognizes that these duties are ancillary to the normal duties and as such employees will not have as much expertise in performing these duties and functions. This shall be taken into consideration by managers and supervisors as employee evaluations occur.
The Publisher recognizes that these ancillary duties have not been required of employees previously. While employees are not expected to be immediately proficient in all of these duties they are expected to give a fair effort and endeavor to improve over time, and an employee who meets the obligation to give a fair effort and endeavor to improve over time shall not be subject to discipline, provided further, that no employee shall be unreasonably disciplined.
The Publisher agrees to guarantee that for the term of this collective bargaining Agreement that no less than six (6) full-time photographers and/or graphic arts photographers shall be employed by the newspapers and that these six (6) positions shall not be eliminated due to the multiple platform and new media work of other employees.
4. The Publisher shall have the right to assign work within the jurisdiction of the Guild to persons not covered by this Agreement as outlined herein provided that such assignment shall not result in the layoff of any employee, actively employed on the day of ratification of this Agreement. The Publisher shall give the Guild not less than thirty (30) days notice of such contemplated assignment and the parties shall meet and engage in effects bargaining over these matters.
Nothing contained in Article III, section 4 shall be construed as:
a. altering the definition of the bargaining unit and/or
b. depriving the Guild of the right to contend that persons performing any reassigned, subcontracted, or transferred work are to be included in the unit.
The parties agree that this language is not intended and does not allow the Publisher to create "shadow departments" consisting of non-union employees of the newspaper provided further that this sentence shall not be construed as limiting any rights that the Publisher had prior to the effective date of this Agreement.
No more than fifteen percent (15%) of the bargaining unit positions that exist as of the effective date of this Agreement may be assigned to persons not covered by this Agreement.
5. Managers and supervisors may perform bargaining unit work in cases of emergencies, in instances where customer inquires are elevated to their attention, for training purposes and when employees fail to report absences within two (2) hours of the start of the scheduled shift the supervisor or manager may perform the unit work of said individual as management attempts to fill that vacancy first at straight-time and at overtime as a last resort. Managers and supervisors may perform unit work in instances where employees who have reported to work are then unable to finish their scheduled shift and cannot reasonably be replaced as discussed during negotiations.. In addition, a supervisor or manager may occasionally perform up to fifteen (15) minutes of bargaining unit work per shift, provided that this shall not displace any employee at work on the shift and provided further that this shall not be considered as modifying the definition of the Guild's jurisdiction.
ARTICLE V GENERAL WAGE PROVISIONS
1. Merit pay shall be granted at the discretion of the Publisher. All employees covered by the Agreement will receive the increases of their classification and experience rating as provided herein. Employees who as of (date of signing of this Agreement), were being paid above the top minimums shall maintain dollar differentials above the new top minimums when minimums are increased, unless otherwise agreed as part of this Agreement.
6. On occasions, due to the absence of certain exempt employees on normally scheduled workdays, during vacation or periods of illness or injury, or for other reasons, it becomes necessary for employees from within Guild jurisdiction to perform duties otherwise performed by the exempt employee. At such time, the following rates of compensation shall apply:
Newsroom:
a) When an employee from within the bargaining unit is assigned to replace an editor in the news operation for more than thirty (30) consecutive calendar days, the employee shall be paid fifteen percent (15%) premium above the pay scale of assistant city editor for the replacement work.
b) When an employee from within the bargaining unit is assigned to replace an editor in the news operation for up to thirty (30) consecutive calendar days, the employee shall be paid at the pay scale for assistant city editor plus ten ($10.00) dollars per day for the replacement work.
All Other Departments:
a) When an employee from within the bargaining unit is assigned to replace an exempt position in any department outside of the Newsroom, the employee shall be paid ten dollars ($10.00) per day for the replacement work for up to thirty (30) consecutive calendar days.
b) When an employee from within the bargaining unit is assigned to replace an exempt position in any department outside of the Newsroom for more than thirty (30) consecutive calendar days, the employee shall be paid a premium of 15% of the employee's regular base pay for the replacement work.
7. An employee shall be paid the weekly night differential of twenty ($20.00) dollars if all his scheduled shifts extend beyond 6:00 PM or begin before 6:00 AM. An employee not paid the weekly night differential shall be paid one-fifth of the night differential for each scheduled shift work beyond 6:00 PM and before 6:00 AM.
ARTICLE VI MINIMUM WAGES, JOB CLASSIFICATIONS
1. The job classifications and experience levels set forth below shall be paid no less than the minimum amounts listed, subject to wage diversions mutually agreed to by the parties. The Publisher may design and/or implement additional incentive or sales plans, pay other commissions, award prizes, grant time off with pay and/or utilize gifts, recognition and other forms of reward above the minimums set forth in this Agreement. The Publisher may modify, reduce or eliminate any form of incentive or commission plan or other compensation, reward or recognition above the minimums which was established by or given at the discretion of the Publisher. The Letter of Understanding on page ___ Re: Advertising Salespersons and Commission Pool for Salespersons describes specific terms including base pay and an annual minimum guarantee of the "key rate" for the Advertising Salespersons. Additionally, the Letter includes the Publisher's agreement to create a commission pool from which all Major Accounts Salespersons, Advertising Salespersons, Advertising Telephone Salespersons, the Call Center Coordinator and the Classified Advisors shall receive commissions to be determined by the Publisher.
3. For the term of this Agreement, the Publisher agrees that Advertising Telephone Salespersons shall not receive less total compensation, including base pay and commissions, on an annual basis than Advertising Sales Assistants.
Negotiated Increases:
Two percent (2%) increase, compounded effective November , 2007. Retroactivity for June and July only shall be paid on this rate.
Two percent (2%) increase, compounded effective June 1, 2008
Two percent (2%) increase, compounded effective June 1, 2009
Two percent (2%) increase, compounded effective June 1, 2010
Signing Incentive:
$250.00 for full-time employees
$125.00 for part-time employees
ARTICLE VII HOURS AND OVERTIME
1. The parties recognize that due to the scope of the Guild's unit there is a need for greater flexibility in scheduling required to meet both the Publisher's operational needs and the employees' desire for more work options in various departments. It is recognized that the standard workweek shall consist of five (5) days totaling thirty-seven and one-half (37 ½) hours and the normal workday shall consist of seven and one-half (7 ½) hours. Flexible work schedules may occur with mutual agreement between the employee and supervisor. The Guild shall be notified in writing when a flexible schedule becomes regularly established,
2. By mutual agreement between the Publisher and the employee involved, full-time employees may work a week consisting of thirty-seven and one-half (37 ½) hours straight-time over four (4) consecutive days. No scheduled straight-time shift within a week shall exceed ten (10) hours unless agreed as part of a flexible work schedule. Employees working a four (4) day workweek shall be subject to the provisions of Article XIX, Section 2, except that the workweek will consist of three (3) days and thirty (30) hours. The Publisher or the employee involved may elect to discontinue the four (4) day workweek schedule by giving thirty (30) days notice to the other party.
3. All hours actually worked in excess of thirty-seven-and-one-half (37.5) per week or ten (10) hours per day shall constitute overtime and shall be paid at the rate of time and one-half (x1-1/2). Holidays, scheduled vacation and the approved paid personal day shall be considered time actually worked for purposes of this section. Paid sick leave shall not be considered time actually worked for the purpose of overtime. Compensatory time may occur by mutual agreement between the employee and the supervisor in accordance with the law.
6. Any employee called back to work after having completed his/her shift and having left his/her place of work shall be paid a minimum of four (4) hours pay at the appropriate rate.
8. Full‑time employees shall be given at least two (2) weeks notice of any change in the work schedule which would move an employee between the day and night shifts or change their off days, or a change to the regularly scheduled hours of work, except in case of a bona fide emergency. Normal workdays and working hours shall be regularly scheduled. Full-time employees shall be given seventy-two (72) hours notice of any temporary change in the working hours schedule, except in the case of bona fide emergencies.
9. The Publisher shall give reasonable consideration to legitimate situations such as, for example, an employee's request to attend appointments, deal with child care issues, etc., when changes to the work schedule are made on a non-precedent basis.
10. The Publisher at its discretion may permit an employee who requests to work from his/her home for the period of time which the Publisher deems appropriate on a non-precedent basis.
ARTICLE VIII PART-TIME AND TEMPORARY EMPLOYEES
4. The Guild and the Publisher in order to avoid confusion in the future have endeavored to capture all of the past practices in regard to scheduling in the distribution department as noted below.
(a) Part-Time Distribution Assistants
(1) Part-time distribution assistants shall have first opportunity to perform all distribution department work not performed by full-time employees.
(2) Part-time distribution assistants may sign-up by seniority for straight-time scheduled shifts of up to thirty-six (36) hours each week.
(3) For work not scheduled in advance or work assigned on the floor, part-time distribution assistants shall be offered work in seniority order except that the Publisher shall have the right to utilize distribution assistants working at straight-time before using distribution assistants working at overtime.
(4) For the Press Herald shifts, the Publisher shall cause a sign-up sheet for work availability to be posted weekly. In case of additional work or absence, part-time distribution assistants shall be called from the sheet in order of seniority, except that distribution assistants working at straight-time may be called first.
(5) As needed, overtime not covered above and as deemed necessary by the Publisher shall be scheduled in order of seniority.
(b) Full-Time Distribution Assistants
(1) Full-time distribution assistant positions shall be offered in seniority order to part-time distribution assistant employees for a period of six (6) months. In addition, after the following named employees have each been offered a full-time positions, the parties agree to follow the procedures of Article XVI - Promotions, Job Changes and Transfers, Section 3, when filling new or vacant full-time positions. The named employees are Georgia Clifford, Charlene Hansen, Robin Cook, William Longacre, Ethel Creamer, Frederick Nelson, and Natale Martini.
(2) Scheduling shall be done in accordance with Article VII - Hours and Overtime. Schedules shall be chosen by seniority.
(3) Full-time distribution assistants shall be called for overtime in accordance with Section 4 (a), subsections 3, 4, and 5 above.
ARTICLE X GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE, ARBITRATION, NO STRIKE - NO LOCKOUT
3. It is recognized by the parties that expeditious resolution of grievances is in the best interests of both parties and the employees affected. To that end, within sixty (60) calendar days of discovery, which shall be automatically extended by thirty (30) day with notice to the Publisher and which may be further extended by written request made to the Publisher and mutually agreed between the parties, the grievance process must be initiated as set forth in the following provisions.
ARTICLE XII SICK LEAVE
1. Full-time or part-time employees who are employed fifty percent (50%) or more of the workweek, determined by combining an employee's straight-time hours worked or paid for with hours of vacation pay accrued, shall be eligible for sick pay for scheduled days or hours lost due to a bona fide illness or injury as follows:
c. One-half of accrued and banked sick days, or five (5) days, whichever is less, must be used before an employee is eligible for short-term disability leave. Accrued sick days shall not be paid to an employee terminating his/her employment with, or who is terminated by, the Publisher.
2. A full-time or eligible part-time employee off work due to a bona fide illness or injury for more than five (5) consecutive working days shall be considered off work due to a serious health condition as that term is used in the Family and Medical Leave Act. The employee, during the five (5) day period following the fifth (5th) consecutive work day off due to illness or injury, shall submit to the Publisher, if it requests, his/her physician's diagnosis of the nature and seriousness of his/her illness or injury and the physician's prognosis for the duration of the illness or injury. The Publisher, if it so elects, may have the employee examined by a physician of its choosing. The cost of such examination shall be paid by the Publisher. A full-time or eligible part-time employee off work more than five (5) consecutive days due to a serious health condition, shall be eligible for short-term disability leave as follows:
Employee's years of Service Short-term temporary disability leave
Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Technorati
