M&R Sick Time Policy

[Ken MacTiernan]

Who cares what other companies have/get?

At AA we had language. That language was gutted.

AA is upset about the "increase" in sick time by the ONLY work group that gets dinged 1/2 days pay for the first two days of EACH occurrence?

Don't worry. The twu will assist the company in fixing this "problem". It will of course go out for a full membership vote. I wonder how the dead guys and people who aren't in our class and craft will vote?

Also, how will burchette vote? After all, how does a guy vote when he has his hands in the company's pockets?

 

[NewHampshire Black Bears]

He IS'NT playing "pocket pool"(with AA's Nuts)......IS HE ?


NH/BB's

 

[Birdman]

I don't know about the rest of the system but in Tulsa a department of "attendance monitors" (to put it nicely) was created several years ago to intimidate those using sicktime. It has been a dismal failure yet they continue on a daily basis. Why has it taken years of a failed policy to make changes?? Can you say incompetence?

 

[TWU informer]

The story I am getting regarding removal of the 1/2 day pay penalty on sick time, is that Management Bonuses tied to stock price of AMR is going to be triggered again and more huge Management Stock Bonuses are on the horizon after the first of the year.

The change in sick leave policy is being kicked around as a carrot to keep the troops from having low morale problems as a result of the bonuses.

Of course this leaves a perfect attendance employee getting nothing, and rewarding those that have or will use sick time.

 

[TIME FOR CHANGE]

Of course this leaves a perfect attendance employee getting nothing

 

[Man of the People]

The scheme has not only hurt morale but it increased costs.

Morale? What morale?

I had a discussion with a high-ranking mangager in maintenance and told him the morale on the floor was low. His reply: Morale is self-generating!

Can you believe that?

 

[TIME FOR CHANGE]

It is self generating but at AA it is generating in the wrong direction

 

[Ken MacTiernan]

I had a discussion with a high-ranking mangager in maintenance and told him the morale on the floor was low. His reply: Morale is self-generating!

Can you believe that?

If the out of touch high-ranking manger replied as you say he did then perhaps he should go work for the twu international. After all, a slogan such as "Morale is self-generating." could be the next contract theme.

WAIT! Maybe THAT is what burchette is doing with his hands in the company's pockets! He is "self-generating" profits! Glory be! With burchette's hands wrapped directly around the company's "self-generating" process everything should be fine.

 

[Bob Owens]

I don't know about the rest of the system but in Tulsa a department of "attendance monitors" (to put it nicely) was created several years ago to intimidate those using sicktime. It has been a dismal failure yet they continue on a daily basis. Why has it taken years of a failed policy to make changes?? Can you say incompetence?

A mechanic from JFK filed a grievance years ago about harassment regarding sick time. If I recall correctly the arbitrator ruled that the way they conducted their counseling was harassment but since the company didnt actually discipline anyone and it had been going on for a long time that it was ok. So in other words if your attendance is reasonable then go in there with a union rep and ignore them.

 

[Chuck Schalk]

I hear that as part of the PLI the company is considering reversing its policy where M&R workers only get half pay for the first 16 hours of sick time.

What could be their motivation? Possibly the fact that sick time use is costing the company more than ever before thanks to their stupid punitive move of cheating M&R out of half pay for the first 16 hours when they get sick.

Of course top company officials would never admitt to this even though you can see it on the floor and lower level management admits it.

It seems that prior to this policy workers would average one or two days out per occurance and most had three or less occurences per year, but ever since the company started docking M&R workers, and M&R workers only, they usually take 5 or more days off per occurance. While occurances may have declined the first year, durations increased dramatically, more than offsetting any savings from reduced occurances, and over the years, occurance rates seem to be heading back to where they were. The policy itself makes this happen and there can be many reasons why.

Lets say a worker is ill, but feels a little better after a day or so, goes back to work and has a relapse, now he loses two full days of pay for the one illness, so instead he stays out the whole week, because after three or four days a relapse is less likey. I know because this once happened to me many years ago, I had Bronchitus but after a couple of days I felt better and returned to work, well by the end of the shift I was hacking all over again and the doctor told me to stay home for at least a week. If this happened now to somebody under the M&R agreement the company would punish the worker by docking them two full days pay for the one illness. Now even if you think you're feeling better you're not going to take the risk of a relapse, you're going to stay out until you're sure that the illness has past. Why risk losing another days pay if you return to work too early?

Another possible reason for the huge rise in sick time use in M&R could simply be that the longer you stay out the lower the percentage the penalty. For instance if you stay out just one or two days you are penalized by 50%, however if you stay out 5 days the penalty drops to 20% and 10 days it drops to only 10%. After 10 days of rest you should be fit to cs an extra shift and make up for the 8 hours you lost.

Yet another possible reason could be the loss of a week of vacation.Some workers only have a week of vacation, most workers in this country get at least two weeks plus 10 paid holidays. 20 paid days off a year, AA offers 5. That means low seniority AA workers have 15 less paid days off than most workers, even non-union Walmart workers! Sure they can buy a week through Flex Vacation, pay 40 hours for it,and take it in February or late October if they are lucky(Flex vacation actually buys senior workers, whether they buy Flex or not, better picks). That would only leave them with 10 less days off than everyone else and a weeks less pay for the year. Or they may call in and only lose 8 hours pay. So the choice they have is lose 40 hours pay through Flex and take it when the company dictates or lose 8 hours pay and take it whenever they want it with the risk that they could be disciplined from a job that gives them less time off than Walmart.Hmm, what do you think most workers with only one week of vacation would do? The fact is if they do both, buy a flex week and dial in a week they are still short 5 days compared to most other workers.

The company, thanks to their punitive act of penalizing just one group of workers for getting ill, has created a monster. The scheme has not only hurt morale but it increased costs. The morale they could obviously care less about but the fact that they are losing money is intolerable. So now the TWU is going to dress up bailing the company out of this poor decision as a gain and proof that PLI can get us something, (more than likely the TWU will give management an added bonus and agree to changes in the language to penalize workers for staying out more than three days). I say keep the sick program the way it is, instead, if they want to reduce sick time, improve morale and give a token give back then stop penalizing workers who have to work the holidays for half pay. That has a positive impact on workers who dont use their sick time and encourages workers to show up on the holiday. At the very least, since the contract says we are entitled to 5 paid holidays, pay those who have to work the holidays holiday pay plus full pay for the hours worked instead of half pay like they do now. They could fix this without officially reopening the contract, they could cite the fact that the language is contradictory in that it says you are entitled to 5 paid holidays off and that by assigning people work the 8 hours on the holiday due to a lack of sufficient volunteers and only paying 4 hours more for the extra eight hours worked they are in fact only giving half pay for working the holiday.

The fact is that if you have perfect attendance changing the sick penalty policy will do nothing for you. If they at least pay you a full days pay for the five holidays they recognize it would put an extra $600/year in your pocket, correct a huge injustice and likely save the company much more than a change in the sick leave penalty would due to the high percentage of sick calls that occur around the holidays. What happens now is because they have to work for half pay on the holiday it makes sense financially to call in sick, instead of losing eight hours its a wash. For the company the cost would be minimal since it would only apply to around 4000 line workers five times a year, at most $2.4 million a year. But then again that would make too much sense, the company doesnt want to really give anything, they just want to pretend like they are. The opportunity to screw the workers over by pretending to give them something that really gets the company out of a bad deal is just too tempting. Get the $90 million in savings, and cut sick time costs while selling it as a give back, greed is good, and the TWU is more than willing to help.

 

[Chuck Schalk]

Bob,

You continue to amaze me! What you speak and write about leaves little to argue about. I agree with your statements 100%. If they want to give us the sick time back does anyone really believe that it is out of the goodness of their heart or because the sick time is out of control? When has the company or the union done anything to fix our problems. ZZZZZZZZZZZ....... oh thats right, "If you don't like it here then leave" I believe was the words from the company and some TWU officers. We have always been a company union, only now they don't have to hide it!