December 24th?

Whatever

Our union contract states that the NJ facility will be closed for vacation for one week during the period between December 22 and January 2. Also, the ees will be paid for two holidays, Dec. 25 & Jan. 1. If you look at the calendar, this year the last day worked should be Wednesday, December 24 and the last day of vacation Friday, January 2. The problem is the night shift, they do not want to work on Dec. 24. They are willing to work the day shift, but cannot be accomodated. They do not want to work on January 2 (and management does not want to have to open the building until Monday January 5). Any suggestions?

Pixie

I don't understand your post. You write the facility will be closed for one week vacation between December 22nd and January 2nd ... if the the facility is closed beginning 12/22 how can the last day worked be 12/24?

All in all, my repsonse to your post would be ... the employees aren't running the company, Management is. Either they work and get paid, use available PTO, or take the day off without pay and receive the appropriate discipline for not working the schedule.

Heck, I don't want to work Monday through Friday but, if I want to be paid and not be reprimanded, I darn well better show up for work according to my work schedule. I don't call the shots my employer does.

PAhr

Depending on your pay period, you could allow the employees to come in on December 21st (Sunday) at three p.m. and work a double. Or if you can do without eight hours of production, you could find other small jobs that need done and allow the employees to put in their eight hours sometime during that week. We often need floor lines and barriers repainted, repackaging old product or reorganization in any number of departments. The options are limitless when it comes to finding jobs that need to be done. If management wants to open at 7 a.m. January 5th, then have third shift work that friday instead of coming in Sunday night. We do this on occasion and have no problems with it. If the employees complain, give them two options: work January 2nd or work that Friday, end of discussion.

ray a

Whatever, your post confused me, too. But, if I do understand it correctly, consider working them the Saturday before. Our pay week starts on a Saturday, so we have done that in the past and make it legal.

Whatever

Sorry for the confusion. Our work week starts on Wednesdays. Basically our contract states that one week of vacation will be between the period commencing December 22 and ending no later than January 2. The actual days at the discretion of management. In addition, December 25 and Jan. 1 are paid holidays. Management wants to post that building will be closed for vacation from December 25 thru January 2. The night shift is up at arms because they would be expected to work on December 24. They want to work on December 24th during the day shift. However, we cannot accomodate (the number of machines is limiting). We have suggested opening the building for the night shift on January 4. This went over like a lead balloon. So we are planning to stick with Dec. 24th as the last date work. There is an unusual amount of animosity from the ees. (yes, they can use a personal/sick day). We're just hoping that there is a clever way to resolve this with the ees being less angry.

ray a

Will the 1st shift be leaving early on the 24th? We have our 1st shift work 5 to 1:30 then 2nd can come in at 1:30 and leave at 9:00. Kind of a compromise.

WT

This may seem like a silly question but what day will actually be worked. Are the night shift workers working from say 11 pm to 7 am on Dec 24 or do they start on Dec 24 and work over into Dec 25 or in the case of the week at issue are they working Tuesday night or Wednesday night. If they have to work all night on Wed and be exhausted for Christmas Day, I can understand their issue (I used to work a rotating shift). If your schedule is stuck, why not offer them more flexibility in taking paid time off. Set a number of employees that you can get along without and permit that many to take paid time off (if they have it) on that day. This lets your people be honest, and those not permitted to take paid time off know they have to come in. This may be better than letting them manipulate union rules and then think they got the best of you.

Don D

This is a union shop and HR doesn't have the flexibility to arbitrarily rearrange shifts or double people up, at their request, because they don't like the shut-down/vacation schedule. If the union leadership would like to make a proposal for joint agreement and signoff, tell them to reduce their request to writing and present it now, not later. Then let the CEO and person who was contract negotiator consider the request. Then let the CEO decide what he/she wants to do and he and the local president sign off on the contract ammendment. This is not something that should twist HR around the axle. It's a simple matter of the union wanting a deviation from the contract and there are legal procedures for that.

Now, if this IS a situation where the company has complete flexibility to adjust the shut-down week and the scheduled holidays, which I doubt, sit down with the union officials and your CEO and come to a workable decision, and no signatures are needed.

Whatever

We have complete flexibility. And, you do not want me to start my tirade about the current union official or our two shop stewards. However, the current stand of the union is that since the company can set the schedule, they do see the need to sit down with us. Needless to say, any time we can look good and the union look bad, we try to take advantage.
The day shift hours are mandated to start at 7 am.

LindaS

Here's a suggestion (and something we did last year)...

Offer your first shift employees the option of coming in early on the 24th and that way you may be able to allow 2nd shift to work earlier. Secondly allow up to XX amount of people off on the 24th which will also grant you some more space on machines. We did this last year and once we took a look at all the individuals who wanted off, we were easily able to accomodate 2nd shift on 1st shift. We also allowed some flexibility to the employees. We dictated that we would have supervisors on site between 5:00am until 7:00pm. The employees were able to come in and work their eight hours anytime during those hours as long as they notified their supervisor in advance. We are also union and once the employees found out about this, the union committee kept their mouths shut because they didn't want to have to explain to the rest of the membership WHY the 2nd shift employees weren't going to be able to spend Christmas Eve with their families.

rad

My company gives everyone a "gift" of 1/2 day off on 12/24 (or 12/31 if the employee has no need for 1/2 day on 12/24). Can you give the both shifts a 1/2 day so that one full shift is worked by both teams?