May 21, 2001

          Did you attend the Advisory Board meeting on May 19? If so, you are probably entitled to overtime in cash, paid at the rate of time and one-half. Or, you may choose to take five of the hours worked at the meeting and put them in your time-off bank. 

THE CHOICE IS YOURS, NOT MANAGEMENT'S 

          We point this out because of confusion on the matter in the past. If you choose to be paid in cash, all hours spent at the Saturday meeting must be paid at the time-and-one- half rate. If you choose time off, the first five hours go into your time-off bank. Remaining hours must be paid in cash. 

Employees who, because of the nature of their duties, are not subject to the uniform system of overtime recording and compensation are: 

•       Art Directors

•       Editors

•       Chief Librarian

          Under the terms of the 2001-2004 extension of the Newspaper Guild contract with Scholastic, all employees covered by the Newspaper Guild contract with Scholastic and who are on staff on June 11 will receive a 4 percent raise, based on their salaries as of June 10, 2001. Additional 4 percent Guild raises are scheduled for June 2002 and June 2003. When compounded, the increase totals 12.49 percent.

Note: The contract allows management to grant Guild raises to employees in Groups 12 and 13—Art Directors and Editors—before they are granted to other employees. Accordingly, employees in these jobs who have been granted raises of at least 4 percent on or after June 1, 2000 are not eligible to receive a second Guild raise at this time.

In addition, the increases are fully applied to minimum wages in all jobs in each year of the contract. Further, there were no retrogressions in our contract. 

Do not confuse Guild raises with merit raises. Those of you who attended the contract ratification meeting last November may recall that there have been occasions when managers have told employees they would be receiving X percent "merit" and then subtracted the Guild raise from that promised increase. 

Guild raises are separate and not in any way related to merit raises. Scholastic has agreed to make this distinction clear to those eligible for merit increases.