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Holiday Pay: Contract vs HR Policy

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EdEckart

New member
What is the name of your state? Ohio


Does an article in a collective bargaining agreement fully supersede an HR Policy in the below scenario? My employer stopped paying holiday pay for those using benefit time in place of scheduled shifts on or around a holiday. (Holiday pay = 6 extra hours of pay; Benefit time = Vacation, comp, personal day, etc)

The City decided to stop paying holiday pay for people using benefit time and not working. Which is counter to HR policy. They claim since its not spelled out specifically in the contract, therefore they can do this, claiming the contract is final, not HR policy.

The only difference between the two is HR policy has this verbiage, " unless on an approved vacation or personal day, FMLA leave, compensatory day off..." Which is not in the CBA.

Do we lose this because it's not fully in our CBA language? Or do the two go hand in hand? This is a practice that has been in play for decades and they just changed it without notification. When does common sense come in to play?

Thanks.


EXACT VERBIAGE BELOW:


CBA Article 18 - Holidays
To be entitled to holiday pay, an employee must be on the active payroll (i.e. actually receives pay) on the last regular work day before and the first regular work day after the holiday. Employees scheduled to work on a holiday who utilize sick leave on the holiday, will not be entitled to holiday pay. If an employee is not scheduled to work on a holiday but utilizes sick leave on his/her last scheduled work day before or after the holiday, he/she will not be entitled to holiday pay. These restrictions do not apply to approved FMLA leave.


City Policy, Holidays A-8, I.(B)
To be entitled to holiday pay, an employee must work his or her last scheduled work day before and first scheduled work day after the holiday unless on an approved vacation or personal day, FMLA leave, compensatory day off, funeral leave, paid administrative leave, military leave or on a full or partial sick day where the employee has presented a certificate from a licensed physician (or medical provider) immediately upon return to work.


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EdEckart

New member
They believe its a violation, however they said they're waiting to hear from their attorney, in case there is case law on this issue.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
What is the name of your state? Ohio


Does an article in a collective bargaining agreement fully supersede an HR Policy in the below scenario? My employer stopped paying holiday pay for those using benefit time in place of scheduled shifts on or around a holiday. (Holiday pay = 6 extra hours of pay; Benefit time = Vacation, comp, personal day, etc)

The City decided to stop paying holiday pay for people using benefit time and not working. Which is counter to HR policy. They claim since its not spelled out specifically in the contract, therefore they can do this, claiming the contract is final, not HR policy.

The only difference between the two is HR policy has this verbiage, " unless on an approved vacation or personal day, FMLA leave, compensatory day off..." Which is not in the CBA.

Do we lose this because it's not fully in our CBA language? Or do the two go hand in hand? This is a practice that has been in play for decades and they just changed it without notification. When does common sense come in to play?

Thanks.


EXACT VERBIAGE BELOW:


CBA Article 18 - Holidays
To be entitled to holiday pay, an employee must be on the active payroll (i.e. actually receives pay) on the last regular work day before and the first regular work day after the holiday. Employees scheduled to work on a holiday who utilize sick leave on the holiday, will not be entitled to holiday pay. If an employee is not scheduled to work on a holiday but utilizes sick leave on his/her last scheduled work day before or after the holiday, he/she will not be entitled to holiday pay. These restrictions do not apply to approved FMLA leave.


City Policy, Holidays A-8, I.(B)
To be entitled to holiday pay, an employee must work his or her last scheduled work day before and first scheduled work day after the holiday unless on an approved vacation or personal day, FMLA leave, compensatory day off, funeral leave, paid administrative leave, military leave or on a full or partial sick day where the employee has presented a certificate from a licensed physician (or medical provider) immediately upon return to work.


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I once worked for a company that implemented a similar rule. Their reason for doing so was that so many people called in sick before and after holidays that they were having a hard time keeping adequately staffed on the days right before and right after a holiday. Therefore the implemented the rule to discourage people from called in sick before and after a holiday. The also made the same rule that they would not approve personal days off before and after holidays either.
 

PayrollHRGuy

Senior Member
It seems both are in agreement for "sick leave." And the other types of paid days off aren't mentioned. The union lawyer is definitely going to have to get involved.


Is this a new situation?
 

EdEckart

New member
It seems both are in agreement for "sick leave." And the other types of paid days off aren't mentioned. The union lawyer is definitely going to have to get involved.


Is this a new situation?
Yes. They did it without warning or notification. As you note, this has nothing to do with sick days. This is them trying to interpret the contract in a different way to not pay the holiday pay. One would think, because its in the HR policy and the language is mostly the same, that the CBA could be interpreted the same.

There's always past practice, as it was an accepted practice for decades.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
Yes. They did it without warning or notification. As you note, this has nothing to do with sick days. This is them trying to interpret the contract in a different way to not pay the holiday pay. One would think, because its in the HR policy and the language is mostly the same, that the CBA could be interpreted the same.

There's always past practice, as it was an accepted practice for decades.
Its quite unlikely that they are doing it as a way to penny pinch. Its far more likely that they are doing it to try to discourage certain behaviors among the staff. There is no money to be saved for them at all if everyone works the days before and after holidays, and not all that much money to be saved if people don't.

However, as others suggested, bring it to the union and see what they think.
 

EdEckart

New member
Its quite unlikely that they are doing it as a way to penny pinch. Its far more likely that they are doing it to try to discourage certain behaviors among the staff. There is no money to be saved for them at all if everyone works the days before and after holidays, and not all that much money to be saved if people don't.
Actually this is incorrect. They are doing it to save money and have admitted in closed circles, to mess with the union. This is not a sick time issue, but rather a vacation/comp time issue. Vacations are set a year in advance and limited to 3 persons; and comp time is set 2 weeks ahead and limited to 2 persons. Again, there is no behavior issues in this as this has nothing to do with sick time.
 

PayrollHRGuy

Senior Member
It really doesn't matter why they are doing it. According to what has been presented here the contract did take into account "sick days" as being specifically disallowed to be counted and did not mention other PTO days. So it can't be said that the contract is completely silent on the issue unless at the time the contract was written there were no other PTO days.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
It really doesn't matter why they are doing it. According to what has been presented here the contract did take into account "sick days" as being specifically disallowed to be counted and did not mention other PTO days. So it can't be said that the contract is completely silent on the issue unless at the time the contract was written there were no other PTO days.
However, knowing the "why" regarding something can be helpful in figuring out how to combat it. I don't buy a financial motive simply because the cost of the few paid holidays a year for the handful of employees that might violate the policy is simply not worth the hassle. I believe that there is some other motivation at play.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
The way to fight it, no matter the reason they are doing it, is to take steps to enforce the contract.
I agree that they need to take steps to enforce the contract. However I still think that knowing the "why" would be helpful.
 

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