New Attendance program

[tea42]

11/25 -Update from the IBT/CWA Association regarding the Attendance and
Discipline policy; It is the Association's position that the entire policy
is invalid and will not be recognized by it. Our attorneys are in the
process of drafting a letter from the Association to the Company stating our
position in more detail. In the meantime, there is one piece of the policy
that is particularly objectionable and that we feel we must address
immediately - the shift trade issue. Although we are not accepting any
portion of the policy as valid, a grievance is in the works right now on the
shift trade issue, as stated in the FAQ below.

 

[Book 'em]

11/25 -Update from the IBT/CWA Association regarding the Attendance and
Discipline policy; It is the Association's position that the entire policy
is invalid and will not be recognized by it. Our attorneys are in the
process of drafting a letter from the Association to the Company stating our
position in more detail. In the meantime, there is one piece of the policy
that is particularly objectionable and that we feel we must address
immediately - the shift trade issue. Although we are not accepting any
portion of the policy as valid, a grievance is in the works right now on the
shift trade issue, as stated in the FAQ below.

..

 

[Harry Callahan]

Looks like A.H. lied to the Fleet group & they are going to go ahead with this & violate the fleet contract.
If I were to post what I really think. Well I'll quit with that :angry:

 

[perserverance]

AH wants to play the same games, well I'm waiting.
Rich you tell us what we need to do and we'll do it. Just that
simple but DO NOT tell us to accept this. This violates
our agreements. We in PHL are waiting to hear from you.
This is testing the depth of our waters. We need to let
AH and company know the process of change is now
a 50/50 discussion and not so one sided.

 

[Harry Callahan]

I agree with you. We can NOT just accept this & roll over in the fleet group. Rich tell us what we need to do.

 

[mike33]

AH wants to play the same games, well I'm waiting.
Rich you tell us what we need to do and we'll do it.

AH was the other part of the " CRELLIN XMAS ". Now that Crellin is gone, he's the only part.

 

[robbedagain]

Come on Rich, tell us what we need to do. There is ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE to have this POS thing added to an already POS trash they call a contract

 

[leprechaun]

Word is there will be an announcement tomorrow about revisions to the new attendance policy. They are rumored to be more employee friendly. CWA folks here in Boston would like to give a thanks to the IAM for pushing the issue with management.

How was happy hour Velvet? Good buffet? We will not forget you and the CWA's lack of action.

 

[freedom]

i continue to disagree with the revised sick policy (if it's what i heard yesterday ) ... i now feel that this issue is best settled in arbitration .

 

[tadjr]

Memo posted today-
Commitment to Success Attendance Program Effective December 1, 2008

The Airport Customer Service department began notifying employees in mid October of a new Attendance Program for the merged carrier with the goal of maintaining a reliable work force essential to the efficient operation of the Company. Since that time we have received observations from our employees, managers and both Unions (IAM and IBT-CWA) regarding the transition to the new program as well the application of the program itself. Based on the comments received, the Program will be modified/clarified to include the following:

Transition to the new program for employees not currently on a discipline for attendance: Employees who are not currently on a progressive discipline for attendance, and subsequently have an attendance occurrence after December 1, 2008, will have a Coaching Discussion if the employee has a minimum of four (4) attendance points within the previous twelve (12) month period (including the date of the last occurrence). Employees who received a transition letter advising them of their number of attendance occurrences are not considered to be on progressive discipline.

Coaching Discussion: this non disciplinary discussion will now occur after 4 attendance points within a twelve (12) month period rather than after 3 points.

No Fault: The intent of the "no fault" language was to assign attendance points to all attendance occurrences but was not intended to eliminate management's determination of whether discipline may be issued based on individual circumstances. The "no fault" language will be removed and the policy will be clarified that even though employees receive attendance points for absences other than authorized leaves, management can determine that based on the individual circumstances, any discipline issued may be different than the stated guideline.

Late Call (Absence): Modified to assign 2 attendance points rather than 3 points.

Verification of Absence: the review period for determining when a doctor's note is required after an absence during the peak holiday periods listed will be modified so that the review period is a twelve (12) month look back (rather than current and previous calendar years).

 

[The Bagfather]

This is making me dizzy. But these are the exact changes that
I heard would be made. What's the deal? Did the company
think it's former policy wasn't working?

Did anybody in charge look at that test? Or was that made up by
some intern? Well I'll guess we'll never know. Now they say it's not
a no fault system.

They still expect this to improve productivity. Obviously they don't think
they could have done it with they old system. It wasn't working for them
and they would have had to train managment better as to the way to
carry the old system out.

Maybe some of these "supervisors" are untrainable. That's maybe more
true than we want to believe. Low level management pay sucks and I don't
think their treated any better than any of us.

Now it's a no fault sytem with a heart. Good luck to us all including Mgt.
I don't know if the damage can be undone. In the final analysis. IMO
this is a contractual issue which need to be negotiated, Crudely or not so
crudley put the company is stealing money out of our pockets. Only
this change may mitigate that by some small percent. But they didn't
really have a choice. This was the least thezy could have done without
being crushed by any arbitrator. (BTW are we still going ahead with that?)

I would say real sick pay for a real sick policy but now I'm falling into
their little trap which they have set to go off in 2012. I hope our future
NGs are watching all of this.

Thanks BF

 

[perserverance]

All of this language should be eliminated. This
was not an agreed upon policy and introduced
by the company, alone. We need to have this policy
voided completely not adjusted. C'mon guys show
your worth. You have our backs', use it. Don't let
the company feel thier doing us a favor by changing
the wording. It's not negotiated or agreed upon than
it can not be implemented.

 

[The Janitor]

Word is there will be an announcement tomorrow about revisions to the new attendance policy. They are rumored to be more employee friendly. CWA folks here in Boston would like to give a thanks to the IAM for pushing the issue with management.

How was happy hour Velvet? Good buffet? We will not forget you and the CWA's lack of action.

You got that right. At our Local meeting the other day I heard that the company changed its policy because of the stance of the new direction folks and also because the PHL and BOS CWA local weren't going to bow down to some women named Velvet who wasn't putting up a fight.

At the PHL Local meeting, it was mentioned how Hemenway moved just a little on the attendance policy with a few token modifications but his movement isn't anywhere close to where it needs to be to avoid a grievance over this issue. It was also mentioned that the New Direction will be filing grievances on behalf of fleet service for this insulting and disrespectful contract violation.

In only 30 days you can already see the difference between the New Direction team and Randy Canale's team. Randy agreed with Hemenway on the attendance policy and agreed to have his AGC's trained on it. The New Direction team has already forced Big Al to modify his stance and an arbitration award may finally subject Big Al to stop with his insults he keeps trying to hurl at fleet.

 

[The Bagfather]

Janitor: Thanks for that post. The chances of Big Al retracting this
POS before arbitration are nil. He wants that arbitration and he doesn't
even care if he wins so long as the unions are forced to use a bunch of
money to persue it.

Anybody care to guess what Big Als next move will be? Maybe another
letter praising the employees for their hard work.

 

[Jester]

All of this language should be eliminated. This was not an agreed upon policy and introduced
by the company, alone. We need to have this policy voided completely not adjusted. C'mon guys show your worth. You have our backs', use it. Don't let the company feel thier doing us a favor by changing the wording. It's not negotiated or agreed upon than it can not be implemented.

So what's the current sick/absentee policy in the CBA? Oh, there is none, but a clause which allows Management to determine one at a later date? Sounds like this section was reviewed by the same IAM "expert legal advisors" which permitted suspect CIC language a few years ago, and we know how that went. It is a done deal and consider yourself fortunate that it is not nearly as restrictive or onerous as what the mechanics work under.

The arbitrator might toss Fleet Service a bone and reject points earned months ago, but that's about all we are getting.

So Forsooth Jester.