GUILD AND POST REPRESENTATIVES reached a tentative agreement on a new contact. The components of the tentative pact are summarized below. Over the next couple of weeks, the company and union will finalize the language of the agreement. After that process is completed, the tentative agreement will be made available to all members and ratification meetings will be scheduled. Ratification meetings will be held no sooner than the first week in September.
Tentative Agreement
Summary of changes to the current contract:
Term
• September 10, 2014
Article VI, Union Security
• Full union shop except for outside Account Executives.
Article IX, Severance
• Bi-weekly payments of severance or lump sum upon request.
Article XII, Defined Contribution Plan 401(k)
• Delete Employer match
Article XIV, Hours of Work and Overtime
• In addition to 15-minute breaks for those who work on computers, add 10-minute breaks for all other employees
Article XVIII, The Denver Post Health Plan
• Change part-time eligibility to an average of 30 hours per week.
Article XX, Leaves of Absence
• Bereavement leave – Within seven (7) days of the death, the employee shall work with his/her supervisor to schedule the time off.
Article XXIII, Wages
• Except as noted below concerning District Managers, Assistant District Managers, Single Copy Sales Representatives, Customer Service Representatives, Associates and Coordinators, all current scales will remain the same for the life of the Agreement.
• The Post may change pay dates with 30 days prior notice to employees and the union. Management and the union will work out details of a transition plan.
Article XXV, Expenses and Equipment
• Employees making their personal automobiles available for use at the authorization of the Employer shall be reimbursed for all business miles at the IRS rate less 15 cents per mile.
Article XXIX, No Strike
• Add “and employees” after “Union” in the first and last sentences.
Call Center
The Company and the Union agree to an exception to Article II, Jurisdiction of the Contract to allow for the outsourcing of most Circulation Customer Service and Retention/Verification Call Center work. The Company may outsource the handling of inbound customer service calls and outbound retention or verification calls. Remaining circulation call center work including but not limited to customer emails, escalated calls, Fix Files (duplicates, stand alone, PBM at two addresses, hybrids) circulation field requests, field follow up and processing refunds and reversals and any similar work remains under the jurisdiction of the Guild, to be performed by Guild-covered employees.
To facilitate the transfer of work and the reduction in force, the Parties agree as follows:
Outsourcing may occur in phases, but shall begin no sooner than sixty (60) days after ratification of the Agreement and shall be completed within one hundred and twenty (120) days after ratification.
After outsourcing is completed, at least two (2) full-time call center positions and 130 hours of part-time work shall be retained for at least six (6) months.
Prior to call center staff reductions, the Company shall provide to all affected employees, a comprehensive description of the duties of the remaining jobs, a mock schedule and the location where the work will be performed, with the understanding that the location may be changed in the future. Affected employees shall be given notice of any move at least thirty (30) days prior to a location change. The Company shall also provide a schedule of projected dates that staff reductions will occur and the number of positions expected to be reduced on each date.
For the purpose of staff reductions, all inbound and outbound Circulation Customer Service Associates, Circulation Customer Service Representatives and Circulation Customer Service Coordinators shall be in one pool without regard of full-time or part-time status. Layoffs shall be conducted in reverse company seniority order regardless of full-time/part-time status or job title.
Two weeks prior to the effective date of layoff for each phase, the Company shall post notice of the layoff date and the number of positions to be eliminated. During the two-week period, call center employees may volunteer to resign or retire with severance. If there are more volunteers than the number of positions being eliminated, volunteers will be accepted in seniority order.
Part-time employees who remain employed until layoff or resignation during the layoff period shall be eligible for a severance benefit as follows:
- Less than 1 year of service – $500 lump sum before taxes
- One to two years of service – $1,000 lump sum before taxes
- More than two years of service – $400 for each year of service or partial year of service capped at $4,000 lump sum before taxes.
Call center employees who are laid off shall be rehired to fill call center vacancies as provided under Article VII, Employee Security, Section 4(h) through (l) except all laid off employees will be placed on one rehire list without regard to job title or full-time/part-time status, and the rehire list shall be maintained for eighteen (18) months. Employees who elect to resign with severance during the layoff period shall not be placed on the rehire list.
For employees who are enrolled in medical and dental insurance and are laid off or resign during the layoff, the Employer shall pay six (6) months of COBRA subsidy, whereby the Employer pays its share of the monthly premium and the 2% fee.
The Employer shall provide job search and resume writing counseling for all call center employees.
Call center employees who are laid off or resign during the layoff period shall retain eligibility to use Mines and Associates, the Employee Assistance Program provider for six months after separation.
Full-time employees who retain employment shall be scheduled 40 hours within 5 days per week.
Full-time employees who retain employment but move to part-time status shall retain eligibility for severance upon layoff. For those employees, the severance amount shall be the amount the employee was entitled to on the implementation date of this Agreement.
Upon completion of outsourcing, wages for all remaining call center employees except those who were Customer Service Coordinators shall be the Customer Service Representative pre-concession rate (Classification 26).
Upon completion of outsourcing, any Customer Service Coordinators who remain employed shall have their weekly pay reduced by $50 to $753. One year later those employees shall have their weekly pay reduced to $710 per week, top scale of pay classification 26.
Call center employees who remain employed after outsourcing is completed may elect to resign with severance within 60 days after the completion of outsourcing. For unemployment purposes, such resignations will be treated as layoffs. Vacancies shall be filled by rehire from the list of laid off employees.
Three months after outsourcing is completed, the Company and the Union shall meet to discuss work expectations and possible changes to the job description.
If The Post decides to return inbound and/or outbound call center work to the U.S.A., the Guild shall be provided a request for proposal (RFP) and shall be allowed an opportunity to submit a proposal to return the work to The Post under the Guild’s jurisdiction. In deciding whether to accept the Guild proposal verses any other proposal, The Post’s decision shall not be for arbitrary or discriminatory reasons.
Home Delivery
• District Managers – 7.5% cut to $1,132 per week.
• Assistant District Managers – 6.75% cut to $726 per week.
• Severance based on continuous full-time service. (ZM/exempt time counts)
In the home delivery department, the pay system shall be pre-populated with scheduled hours. Time cards shall be submitted on the last day worked in a pay-week. Hours on the timecard that differ from the scheduled hours shall be entered into the pay system. Zone Managers shall not discourage employees from submitting hours worked or offer comp time in lieu of overtime pay except time to be taken in the same pay-week.
Single Copy
• Effective on implementation, weekly pay of $1,087 until the last day of the Agreement, then 29A scale of $950 per week effect on the last day of the Agreement.
• Memorandum of Agreement No. 2 Continues.
Production Maintenance
• Production Maintenance employees shall all move to the new job title of Production Maintenance Technician after the parties agree that all employees have received adequate cross training to perform any work that may be required of a Production Maintenance Technician. The Parties will meet in January 2013 to discuss if they mutually agree to move to one title and to discuss the bidding process/structure.
Bargaining Committee:
Kathy Rudolph
Sam Johnson
Maureen Shively
Michelle Miller
Tom Peterson
Laurie Faliano
Paulette Shrefler
Tony Mulligan
