Paid Time Off Policy

LSerafin

I am with a small healthcare employer- 350 employees. We are negotiating our first contract for service and technical employees. We would like to put in place a "paid time off policy", which now means negotiating it with the union.
I have some sample policies, but am not sure whether to consider holiday time as part of paid time off. And also, is there any way to include breavement time?
If you use paid time off, your suggestions are welcome. Thanks

Don D

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 04-26-04 AT 09:39AM (CST)[/font][br][br]Based on my union experience, I think you can expect that the first several items on the union's agenda will be holidays and bereavement leave. Holiday's might be more cut and dried although they will push for 11-13 instead of 8-9 as might be your standard. Bereavement gets more sticky in union situations. Expect them to push not only for more than a standard 3 maximum days but to also push to have a more inclusive crowd of relationships in the covered family members. In my last negotiations, the union wanted 'close cousins' covered and we finally buried that one after they could provide no definition of what in the world it meant. I don't know if you've negotiated before, but push for a low number of days and a small sphere of immediate family. Expect them to 'knock you around' on jury duty, paid lunch break and sick leave too. Sick leave is always a big one for the union. With your management group, identify two solid bargaining chips to use as aces in the hole, ones you are really willing to give up easily but present the front that you're really going to have to struggle to give them up. Paid jury duty and a third day of bereavement leave might be two to consider. Good luck. Take plenty of bottled water and your Rolaids.

deniseE

Don is right...don't put your "final" offer on the table first...give yourself some room to move.

Our PTO accrues at a set percentage of total hours worked during a pay period based on length of service....2.5% for 0-5 years, 5.77% for more than 5 years. Executives receive 7.50%. The percentages work out to the number of hours earned during a payperiod.

This structure provides several benefits for us...first, that ee's don't have all of the leave available right away. So a brand new ee...will not receive all 13 days of leave up front....leave can be carried over...with the exception of the 2 personal days...we get one during the first six months of the year and the other during the second half of the year. Any Personal time not used by 12/31 is gone.

We limit berevement leave to immediate family BUT if the ee has available PTO...it can be taken to attend the funeral of anyone he wants.

good luck!