No, you can't!

On June 12 arbitrator Elliott D. Shriftman ruled that Time Inc. “violated the collective bargaining agreement … by reducing the hours and pay of full-time Sports Illustrated Copy Editors … and Photographers.” That was a unilateral move made by the company that, the Guild argued, left many of the individuals we represent with “jobs” that didn’t allow them to make a living.

The arbitrator’s decision, however, does not include a remedy to resolve the current dispute. Shriftman wrote, “The parties are to meet within ten days of the date of this award and endeavor to ascertain the appropriate damages.” The Guild and the company are scheduled to meet next Monday on the issue, and the Guild is hopeful that a resolution can be reached.

The decision was prompted by management’s decision late in 2008 to reduce the hours and pay of every full-time copy editor from 35 hours to 24 hours and every full-time staff photographer from 35 to 17½ hours. The Guild immediately filed a grievance, telling the company that the contract does not allow across-the-board reductions in hours rather than full layoffs of individual Employees.

As Shriftman writes: “[M]ost employees seek permanent (or regular), full-time jobs so that they can fix a budget, consider qualifying for and paying off a mortgage or other loans, such as school loans, among other important financial obligations.” These tasks are almost impossible on half or two-thirds pay… When downgraded to part-time status, having ‘a’ job is sometimes not better than having no job,”

The road ahead

The Guild will propose that all of the “part-timers” be given back their full-time jobs. Further, the Employees should all be made whole for pay lost since their partial severance packages ran out.

If no agreement is reached, presumably the parties will appear before Arbitrator Shriftman to arrive at “appropriate damages” to compensate the Employees of the two departments.