Frequently Asked Questions
How are vacations scheduled?
Do I get pay or compensatory time when I work overtime?
When can I have a union rep at a meeting with my boss?
How does holiday pay work?
Vacation times are chosen within each work group by seniority with the most senior members picking first. Vacations have to be chosen by March 15 so everyone can make travel plans. Members may wait until after March 15 to chose their vacation times, but after that date it is on a first-come-first-served bases and seniority won’t apply.
The company has the right to limit the number of people out on any given week to make sure it has enough people here to do the needed work.
Everyone may take at least two weeks off between May 1 and October 15.
Do I get pay or compensatory time when I work overtime?
When you work more than 7 ½ hours in a day, and your supervisor has approved it, you are entitled to overtime, paid at time and a half. It is your choice as to whether you get paid money or time off. The money pay is time and a half and the comp time is time and a half too. So if you worked two hours over time you would get either three hours pay or three hours off.
The important thing to remember here is the overtime must be approved. You can’t go up to your supervisor after you’ve worked the extra hours and announced you want overtime. The manager must approve it before you work it.
If you see you can’t get your assignments done by the end of your shift, go up to your manager two hours before and let him/her know. Tell them you’ll need overtime to get the job done and let them make the call. They’re managers, they’re supposed to manage.
Technically, comp time must be taken in the same week whenever possible. In years past some managers allowed their staffers to bank comp time, but with our shrinking staff that seems to have stopped. The contract doesn’t allow it.
When can I have a union rep at a meeting with my boss?
The National Labor Relations Board’s Weingarten decision gives you the right to have a union representative present at disciplinary meetings with your supervisor. This means meetings where you might face come kind of punishment, such a dismissal, suspension, written or verbal warning.
This isn’t all meetings or meetings where you might simply be critiqued. They have the right to have an opinion about your work. They have the right to talk to you about it, to yell at you, to insult you and unfortunately you have no representation rights in those sessions.
But if they are thinking about any kind of discipline, you have the right to have a union rep in the room. If you are in a meeting with a manager and you feel you are facing some kind of discipline, you should ask “Am I facing any kind of discipline here?” and if the answer is yes, then you should say you’d like a Guild person there and the meeting must stop until representation can be arranged.
Sometimes someone is available right away to come in but we have had times when the meetings had to be put off for a day or more to arrange a time when everybody can meet. In such situations you should call the Guild office at 421-9466, Guild President John Hill at 277-7381 or any board member or unit council member in you work unit.
The Weingarten decision says the Guild person is there as a witness for you, so that the company can’t later claim they did or didn’t do something and it’s your word against two or more managers. The Guild representative can ask questions and clarify the reasons for the discipline, but the point is not to change the manager’s mind but to pin down exactly what the issue is so we can plan our response later.
How does holiday pay work?
If you work one of the recognized paid holidays (New Years’, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Victory Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, plus your personal day) you get double time. You get paid for these days whether your work them or not. On you timecard you put down 7 ½ hours under the tag paid holiday. If you also work the day, you put 7 ½ down for hours work. The net effect is that you are getting paid for 15 hour when you worked 7 1/1. Overtime on a holiday is time and a half.
Instead of pay you may also take a different day off, if your supervisor approves it.
If a holiday falls in on a day you aren’t scheduled to work , you get a different day off or an extra day’s pay. If it falls during your vacation, you get an extra day off with pay. If you were scheduled to work the holiday and miss the day because you were sick, you get another day off.
You cannot be made to work more than one of the “Big Three” end-of-year holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, in the same holiday season. You can, with at least three weeks notice to your supervisor, substitute a holiday of another faith for Christmas or New Years Day. page.