Aborted outsourcing meeting brought back to life at S&P

STANDARD & POOR’S – An aborted meeting of the Client Services Department and the Unit Council to discuss management’s planned outsourcing of  the billing and collection functions has been rescheduled for Friday, August 31, from 1-3 p.m. in the Bayview Room.

The original meeting to discuss the planned outsourcing had been scheduled for Monday, August 6, and was canceled after management refused to allow the Guild to use the space, which was both a contract violation and a break in a long-standing past practice. We went ahead and scheduled another meeting and management’s about face was probably the result of a grievance and unfair labor practice charge we filed in connection with management’s failure to allow us use of a meeting room.

     Inclement weather

       agreement signed      

At long last an agreement has been signed with management to have vacation and personal days returned to employees who had them swiped from then when they couldn’t make it into work during three storms about a year and a half ago.

The grand theft took place after blizzards crippled commutation on December 27, 2010, and January 27, 2011, and then an ice storm did the same thing on February 2, 2011. Although management advised employees to “take all precautions for safety” and, in fact, paid some employees who didn’t brave the snow and ice to trudge into work, others were charged personal and vacation days in order to be paid.

To add insult to injury, some employees who didn’t have vacation nor personal days left at the end of December 2010, were swiped of their 2011 allotment.

It took the filing of an arbitration demand for the Guild to retrieve the days. As a result of the settlement, the Guild will withdraw its arbitration demand.

Management does not admit any wrongdoing per the agreement.

The agreement does not apply to those individuals who had requested vacations or personal days in advance of the storms.

A notice to employees covered by the agreement should have gone out today, notifying them of their days that will be restored. Any bargaining-unit employee who believes he or she is owed a day or days who does not receive a notice or receives a notice that is incorrect, should contact Laura Katsanos or another member of the Human Resources Department within 30 days. Thirty days is the deadline for raising a dispute.

Employees who have vacation or personal days reinstated to them are expected to use them by the end of the year. If they are unable to use them by the end of the year, they will have until February 28, 2013 to use them..