Reuters to pay lump sums; first PIP arbitration set for Monday

Lump sum payments to be made July 20

Thomson Reuters management has confirmed that Guild-represented employees will receive their share of this year’s $2.4 million lump sum payment on Friday as part of the contract ratified on July 8, 2011. This distribution is in addition to the regular July 20 bi-weekly paycheck and represents payment for the July 9, 2011-July 8, 2012 year.

The $2.4 million, divided among all bargaining unit employees on the payroll as of July 8, will yield a payment of $5537.61 to year-long, full-time bargaining unit employees, before applicable deductions and taxes. Payments to part-time employees were pro-rated. For example, an employee who worked 60 percent of the 35-hour work week will receive 60 percent of the full-time payment. Payments to employees who joined the bargaining unit after July 9, 2011 will be prorated according to the quarter in which they started.

Employees who left the bargaining unit before July 8 will not receive any of this year’s lump sum. This is different from the payment made in 2011, when each employee who left the bargaining unit prior to ratification received a payment. Those payments were made under a one-time exception in the contract (Article VIII, Section 3) to address employees who had worked in the bargaining unit during impasse, regardless of their status at the time of ratification. All subsequent lump sum payments, however, are to be calculated based upon the number of bargaining unit employees on the payroll on the ratification anniversary date.

There are two remaining lump sum payments remaining. The first will divide $1.8 million among bargaining unit members as of July 8, 2013 and the final payment will divide $1 million among bargaining unit members as of July 7, 2014, the formal expiration date of the current contract.

These are gross amounts and do not reflect the usual paycheck deductions, including Guild dues and taxes. Questions? Talk to your steward or contact Guild Representative Susan DeCarava (212) 730-1509.

On the PIP front, our fight starts Monday;

Amsterdam journalist wins reinstatement

Our fight against the bogus PIP process continues through grievances and arbitration. The first PIP-related arbitration is set for Monday in New York. This one originated before this year’s PIP onslaught, but still involves management’s improper use of discipline based on the Performance Management program. Our contract says specifically that that program “or any substitute for it or supplement to it shall not be used in connection with the discipline of any employee.”

The zealous use of the PIP process has extended beyond the borders of the United States. In Amsterdam, Roberta Cowan fought the company and won, as reported on TheBaron.info. She was fired after having been put on a PIP for allegedly having too many typos (sounds like the manager of a Guild member who accused him of not using enough pronouns, doesn't it?). A Dutch judge ruled against her dismissal.

Other former colleagues have written to The Baron to voice their outrage at the departure last month of another PIP’d Guild member, ace Supreme Court reporter Jim Vicini. Michael Arkus, who left Reuters a decade ago, expressed the feelings of many in recalling one of Vicini's stellar moments as the first reporter in Washington to make sense of the pivotal Bush v. Gore ruling. In an open letter to Editor in Chief Stephen Adler, Arkus wrote:

"I just want to ask you, Mr. Adler: are you aware that on the night of December 12, 2000, Jim Vicini, alone among the myriad journalists milling around on the steps of the Supreme Court, immediately called the Bush v. Gore decision, his laser intelligence seeing right through the opaque legal murkiness to a shining “gold”?"

As another former Reuters veteran, Howard Luxenberg put it on The Baron:

"TR will surely survive these misadventures, but not without a huge loss of professionalism. Erroneous reporting by hand-picked prize winners has been tolerated without the slightest instance of recrimination while experienced journalists with many years loyal service are dumped unceremoniously. The hypocrisy is breathtaking."