Guild, S&P reach tentative agreement on job security

Standard & Poor’s negotiators Thursday, April 29, presented the Guild with a long-awaited severance proposal that eventually cleared the way for an agreement on a multi-faceted job-security package. 

According to management’s proposal, which was tentatively agreed to by the union, going forward individuals entitled to severance will have two options:

1. They may elect the current severance formula that appears in our most recent Guild contract – two weeks’ pay for each year of service for the first 13 years’ of service and one week’s pay thereafter. There is no cap on that formula.
2. They may elect two weeks’ pay for every year of service, but if an individual selects this option the employee must sign a release and severance is capped at 52 weeks.

The proposal does not alter the enhanced severance formula that appears in the current Collective Bargaining Agreement for layoffs due to subcontracting. 

When the company’s lead negotiator, Steve Macri, an outside attorney with the firm of Putney, Trombley, Hall and Hirson, initially described the formula, the Guild told him it was “underwhelmed” with the idea. But Local Representative Bob Townsend said we would accept it if S&P would boost notice pay and remove a major stumbling block. The “stumbling block” appeared in management’s initial proposals as a demand that no severance be paid to individuals fired for performance reasons. S&P negotiators later amended their proposal, saying they’d pay half the severance due if employees fired for performance signed a release.

Following a caucus, Macri and Mike McGlynn, Director of Workplace Initiatives/Human Resources, returned to the negotiating table to say that S&P wouldn’t do a thing about increasing notice pay, but full severance would continue to be paid for employees terminated for performance reasons and no release would be required. With that barrier removed, the Guild accepted the job-security package.

Other provisions include:

• A change in Job Security Groups for 18 employees.
• A change in job titles for 21 employees.
• Seniority to be based on length of service with the company in every instance instead of length of service with the company in some cases and length of service in the job title in others. This, incidentally, was a proposal made by both the Guild and S&P. In the Guild’s pre-negotiation survey, members overwhelmingly told us they wanted one measure of seniority and they wanted it to be time with the Publisher.
• “Bumping” to be confined only to an individual’s Job Security Group. In its initial proposals, the company sought to end the practice of bumping altogether. When the Guild resisted that, the company sought three Job Security Groups. Management later withdrew that demand.
• Employees terminated for excessive absenteeism and/or excessive tardiness to receive two weeks’ severance pay in a lump sum upon signing a release. Under the current contract, employees fired for those reasons receive no severance pay.
• Thirty days to be added to the probationary periods of new employees bringing them to 120 days for some positions and 150 for others. The company had originally proposed 270-day probationary periods for all employees.
• Time on the rehire list for laid-off employees to be reduced from four years to three years. The company had originally proposed it be cut to one year.
• The time the company may use temporary workers to be expanded by 30 days to 120 days. The company had originally proposed 180 days.
• Going forward, when an employee had exhausted Short-Term Disability (after six months) and is severed from the company, the S&P will pay the difference between Long-Term Disability and the employee’s severance entitlement provided the employee qualifies for Long-Term Disability and signs a release. S&P originally proposed ending the practice of paying severance altogether when an employees goes on Long-Term Disability.

In addition to the provisions above, S&P agreed to acknowledge in the contract its practice of terminating an employee for job abandonment after three days of “no call/no show.” The most recent contract notes that S&P is not obligated to make a severance payment to employees terminated “for failure to call in when absent.” The Guild proposed that language be amended to read that S&P need not be required to pay severance for employees terminated “for repeated failure to call in when absent.” S&P negotiators argued that they don’t terminate an employee until there are three days of “no call/no show.” Hearing that, the Guild asked them to memorialize that practice in the contract. They agreed.

The next bargaining session is set for Monday, May 3, at 10:30. Once again, members are invited to sit in as spectators during breaks in their works schedules.