The
Guild has successfully completed negotiations with Standard & Poor’s on a
voluntary buyout program, in an effort to avoid involuntary layoffs in the New
York Investors Services/Data Operations.
The
buyout will be offered to all Guild-covered employees at New York Investors
Services/Data Operations and the 10 applicants with the most seniority in the
company will be accepted. S&P can not refuse any of those volunteers.
But should there be fewer than 10 taking the buyout, involuntary layoffs
will make up the difference.
The
voluntary buyout will provide a maximum of 73 weeks’ pay, based on the
following formula: eight weeks’
notice pay and a special 13-week transition payment, both of which will be paid
via salary continuation after the employee stops working; employees’
contractual severance pay and special “termination pay” of one extra
week’s salary for each year of service, with a 52-week cap on the combination
of severance and extra “termination pay”.
Employees will have 30 days to apply for the buyout, up to 45 days to
consider the offer, and, for those employees who do accept, seven days following
their acceptance to reconsider it. S&P
will not challenge benefits for the volunteers’ unemployment insurance and
will provide letters of reference for them.
Employees will be able to take the severance plus one extra week’s
salary for each year of service portion of the buyout, either in one lump sum,
two installments (this year and next year), via salary continuation, or through
a combination of salary continuation and lump-sum payment, at the employee’s
choice. Contractual health benefits
will continue to be provided by the company during any salary-continuation
period.
If
there are not enough applicants for the voluntary buyout program and an
involuntary layoff becomes necessary, the company has agreed that commencement
of the layoff procedure will not begin until after the 30-day application period
expires, and S&P terminates the services of all non-regular staffers and
probationary employees in the area.
In
addition, S&P has agreed to retrain remaining employees who might have been
affected by a layoff for all of the openings created by the buyout.
New
York Guild President Barry Lipton, who headed the Guild’s negotiating team
commented: “This is the first time we have been able to negotiate a voluntary
buyout program at Standard & Poor’s in an effort to avoid a layoff.
The provisions of this program are generous, and we hope that there’ll
be enough interest in it so that the company can meet its goal of reducing the
staff by 10 employees strictly on a voluntary basis”.
The other bargainers on the Guild’s negotiating team were N.Y. Secretary-Treasurer Bill O’Meara, Local Representative Steve Zavatski, S&P Unit Chairperson Ed Fannon, and S&P Grievance Chairperson Marilyn Bissell.
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03/12/03