May 21, 2008

 

Volunteers Sought for Buyout

69 Guild-Represented Employees’ Jobs in Jeopardy

 

In connection with the devastating reduction in force of 69 Guild positions announced Tuesday, the Newspaper Guild of New York convinced Standard & Poor’s management to allow financial clerks, clerical assistants, receptionists, administrative assistants and secretaries throughout the company to volunteer for an enhanced buyout.

 

In addition, the enhanced package will be offered to all research assistants, senior research assistants, ratings analysts, ratings specialist productions coordinators, copy editors and research analysts in the Credit Market Services job security group, commonly called “Ratings,” Group.

 

The Credit Market Services job security group includes the following departments:

 

·       Structured Finance

·       Corporate Ratings

·       Public Finance

·       Financial Institutions

·       Sovereigns

·       Risk Solutions

·       Fixed Income Analytics

·       Originations

·       Ratings Information Technology

·       Ratings Editorial

·       Data Strategy & Operations (DSO) Product Developing and Marketing

·       Quantitative Analytics

·       Performance Evaluation Services (PES)

 

The object is to place as many individuals as possible of the 69 Guild-represented employees who were notified Tuesday that they are in danger of losing their jobs due to a gigantic loss of business because of the home-mortgage crisis.

 

S&P officials have said they are cutting nearly 250 jobs in all.

 

Unit Meeting Thursday

 

There will be a general membership meeting to discuss the layoffs at 10 a.m. Thursday in the Human Resource Training Room on the 37^th floor.

 

The deadline for volunteering for the enhanced severance package is June 4.

 

The enhanced buyout consists of five weeks “transition” pay, and the traditional two weeks of severance pay for each year of service. In addition to the standard severance, however, there is another week of “terminal” pay for each year of service, making a total of three weeks of pay for every year worked.

 

There is a cap of 52 weeks of severance and transition pay. Very senior employees could garner as much as 57 weeks pay.

 

The notice that was given to those “targeted” employees Tuesday, the ones whose jobs will be lost if not enough volunteers come forward, was a 60-day notice. Their last day of work is slated for July 21, although the company has made it known that on a case by case basis, anyone who volunteers for the buyout could probably leave early if they so desire.

 

Two of the 69 “targeted” individuals notified Wednesday were told they were possibly going to lose their jobs due to outsourcing. The notice in that case was 90 days and the Guild will be meeting with the company to investigate the circumstances surrounding the decision to outsource. The standard severance in the case of outsourcing is the same as the enhanced buyout.

 

Any volunteers should contact the Guild (Unit Chairperson Ed Fannon at Extension 3804 or Local Representative Bob Townsend 212-730-1532) or a representative of Human Resources.

 

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5/21/08