News’ Take
on Extended Sick Leave
Doesn’t Add Up

By Bob DiCesare
President

Does it make sense that someone with three years of experience at The Buffalo News would receive greater extended sick leave benefits than someone with more than 20 years of experience?

Of course it doesn't. Yet that's the way the benefit is playing out under The News' interpretation of contract language relating to the issue. The Guild is preparing a presentation it hopes will convince company officials the Guild's interpretation of the extended sick leave benefit is not only accurate but beneficial to both sides. If our efforts fail, the Local already has given its approval to file for arbitration.

There are two main points of contention.

Management insists the extended sick leave benefit entitles qualified Guild members to a total of six months off (for off-the-job causes) and 12 months off (for work-related causes) with -- and this is an important point -- personal time (vacations, floats, accrued sick time) included in calculating the six- or 12-month period.

The Guild contends members are entitled to a full six- or 12-month period in addition to personal time that is applied to the leave.

The News also insists any personal time accrued during an extended sick leave is applied to the leave scenario.

The Guild contends sick time, vacations and floats accrued during leave do not figure in the equation, with past practice bearing this out.

Here are comparisons of extended sick leave scenarios as they are being interpreted by The News. In this first comparison, the benefits allotted a Guild member with 20 years experience who takes off six consecutive months are measured against the benefits allotted a Guild member with three years experience.

SCENARIO ONE

Twenty-year employee: The contract mandates accrued sick time is used first. A full bank is 45 days. Let's assume, for simplicity's sake, the bank is full. That accounts for the first nine weeks of the six-month leave.

Floating holidays are tapped next. The five float days and nine weeks of sick time now account for 10 weeks of the extended sick leave. Accrued vacation time is next up. This employee has five weeks annually. We'll assume all of them are available. The personal time used in the leave totals 15 weeks.

So the extended sick leave benefit this employee would receive from The News is the total extended leave (26 weeks) minus the personal time (15 weeks) which results in 11 weeks of extended sick leave.

Three-year employee: As in the scenario involving the 20-year employee, let's assume a full sick bank of 45 days and five float days. That brings us to 50 days, or 10 weeks. This employee has three weeks of vacation annually, and we'll assume the weeks are available. The personal time applied to the leave is 13 weeks. So the extended sick leave benefit this employee would receive from The News is the total extended leave (26 weeks) minus the personal time (13 weeks) or 13 weeks.

Final result: The three-year employee receives 13 weeks of extended sick leave benefits, the 20-year employee receives 11` weeks .

SCENARIO TWO

News records show instances where Guild members require six consecutive months of extended sick leave are infrequent. A more likely occurrence is for a member to use a portion of extended sick leave one year, then require additional leave the next, which is allowable e under the contract.

But The News' interpretation of extended sick leave greatly reduces the benefit an employee receives in this scenario. In these sample cases, each employee takes four months of extended sick leave one year, followed by two months of extended sick leave the next year.

Twenty-year employee: As per the contract, an employee retains a week of vacation if the first period of sick leave does not cover the six months. So, in this case, the 20-year employee, who used 15 weeks of personal time in Scenario One, would use 14 weeks of total accrued time in Scenario Two.

The total leave is 16 weeks, minus the 14 weeks of personal time, which means the benefit received from The News amounts to two weeks.

The next year, the employee requires an extended sick leave of two months. A full, replenished sick bank would amount to 15 days. There are another five floats. Vacation time available would be five weeks. The total personal time available (nine weeks) exceeds the leave period (eight weeks), so there would be no extended sick leave benefit received from the News.

Three-year employee: Again, we begin with a four-month absence, which means the member retains a week of vacation. There are 45 days in the sick bank. Five floats are applied. Two weeks of vacation can be tapped.

The total personal time is 12 weeks. The remainder of the 16 weeks – four weeks – is covered under extended sick leave.

The next year, this three-year employee requires an extended sick leave of two months. Fifteen days come out of a full, replenished sick bank. Five floats are applied. Vacation time totals three weeks.

So the total personal time used is 35 days, and the extended sick leave benefit is seven days, which is seven days more than the 20-year employee receives under the same circumstances.

Final Result: The three-year employee receives five weeks extended sick leave benefits, the 20-year employee receives two weeks in the first four month absence, zero in the second year.

OTHER FACTORS

As mentioned earlier, The News also insists that all personal and sick time that accrues during an extended sick leave must be applied to the extended sick leave. Such an interpretation further diminishes the benefit the Guild member receives from The News.

Also, the aforementioned scenarios exclude the application of legal holidays. Any of these falling during a leave term would again diminish the benefit received from The News.

IN SUMMARY

When one plus one equals anything but two, something is amiss.

How can it be that the extended sick leave benefit diminishes with the more time an employee spends at The News?

How can it be that an extended sick leave benefit diminishes if an employee uses multiple extended sick leaves totaling six months instead of a block of six consecutive months?

How can The News insist benefits accrued during extended sick leave are applied to the leave when the contract states "When an employee returns from extended sick leave ... the employee shall have access to all benefits which accrued during the period of paid sick leave?"

The company's interpretations aren't adding up.