The
Union and the Company have reached a tentative agreement, including the
provisions outlined below:
Wages
General Wage
Increase, including all part-time employees, will be increased by 3.5%,
retroactive to 10/1/08. On 10/1/09, base wages will be increased by
3.5%, and on 10/1/10, base wages will be increased by 3.5%.
Premiums
Premiums will be increased by the same
percentage as each General Wage Increase, retroactive to October 1, 2008, for
the duration of the contract.
Upon contract ratification, retroactive to
October 1, 2008, the Company will increase On-Call Premiums by a one-time 3%,
over and above the 2008 General Wage Increase percentage.
Employees who are required to maintain a Class
A or B driver’s license (excluding Transportation Logistics Representatives)
will receive a premium of $0.25 per hour in addition to their hourly rate.
Other Allowances
The existing footwear allowance will be extended to the following 18 additional classifications:
|
Facilities
Helper Facilities
Mechanic Lead
Facilities Mechanic Fleet
Technician Lead
Fleet Technician Fleet
Assistant |
Fabrication
Shop Mechanic #1 Journey
Welder Lead
Laboratory Technician Lead
Machinist Laboratory
Assistant Laboratory
Technician |
Journey
Sheet Metal Mechanic Lead
Repair Shop Mechanic Repair
Shop Mechanic #1 System
Protection Planner Energy
Technician–Residential Journey
Machinist |
The Travel Per Diem will be increased from $30
to $39 per day, retroactive to October 1, 2008.
Split Days Off –
Over
the next four open selection periods, beginning in 2009, Customer Service Field
will reduce split days off by at least 50% compared to 2007 system levels.
Medical, Dental and
Vision Benefit Enhancements for Part-Time Employees
Part-time
employees will be eligible for the following benefits after one calendar year
of service:
Medical - Effective the first day of the month
following ratification, medical benefits (the low-cost HMO, for employee only).
Dental - The first day of the month following
ratification, the SafeGuard dental benefit will be extended to part-time
employees (employee only).
Vision - Effective 1/1/09, the SafeGuard vision
benefit will be extended to part-time employees (employee only).
Note: Part-time employees who waive all three
benefits (i.e., medical, dental and vision) will receive a stipend of
$100/month.
Dental and Vision
Benefit Enhancements for Full-Time Employees
Dental - The first day of
the month following ratification, the Delta Dental plan annual maximum benefit
will be increased from $1,000 to $1,500, and the maximum orthodontic benefit
will be increased from $500 to $1,000.
In addition, employee monthly costs will be fixed at the following
amounts for the term of the agreement.
Employee Only:
$12.50
Employee + 1: $25.00
Employee + 2: $50.00
Vision – Effective the first day of the month
following ratification, coverage for the cost of frames under the VSP and
SafeGuard vision plans will be increased as follows:
|
VSP: After deductible, plan pays 100% for
frames having wholesale cost up to $100.
Employee pays wholesale cost over $100. |
SafeGuard: Plan pays 100% up to $100. Employee pays 75% of retail cost over
$100. |
Medical
Cost Sharing – Effective the first day of the month following ratification, the
current cost sharing structure for the low-cost HMO option will change to a
85%/15% cost-sharing ratio, where the Company pays 85% of the total premium,
and the employee pays 15% of the total premium. Cost sharing for all other HMOs will remain based on the low-cost
HMO, whereby the employee pays the difference in the premium between the
low-cost HMO and the selected HMO. In
addition, the emergency room co-pay will be increased from $25 to $50. Office co-pays will remain unchanged.
401K
Savings Plan Enhancements
Effective 1/1/09, the 401K deferral limit will
be increased from 25% to 50%.
To facilitate employees saving for retirement,
in addition to the current auto enrollment program, the Company may implement
an auto increase feature whereby new employees could automatically have their
pre-tax contribution percentage increased by 1% per year, to a maximum of 6%,
so that these employees receive the maximum Company matching contribution. Consistent with the current auto enrollment
program, employees would be able to opt out of the auto escalation
feature.
Restructure
the Current Sickness Allowance Benefit
Beginning
1/1/09, restructure the current sickness allowance benefit as outlined
below. The key changes are that
employees will be able to carry over all unused current, extended and bonus
sick time from 2009, receive new annual sick time allowances beginning in 2010,
and be able to carry over an unlimited amount of unused sick time from year to
year.
·
The re-structured sickness allowance design will be
phased in, as opposed to changing immediately.
·
Short-term Annual Accrued Sickness Allowance will be
modified to provide five days of sickness allowance for employees with more
than six months and less than a year of active service, and ten days for
employees with one year or more of active service.
·
Active employees, regardless of sick time previously
used, will receive a transition allotment of their Extended-term Paid Sickness
Allowance based on sick time that would otherwise be afforded in 2009. For example, employees with more than ten
years of service will receive seven weeks in their starting Extended–term Paid
Sickness Allowance bucket plus their two weeks of Short-term Annual Accrued
Sickness Allowance, for a total of nine weeks.
·
The 2009 transition allotment of Extended-term
Sickness Allowance will include Bonus Sick if an employee is eligible.
·
At the end of each calendar year, employees will be
able to carry over all unused Extended-term Paid Sickness Leave, including any
unused 2009 transition-year allotments, and the amount that can be carried over
each year will be unlimited. In
addition, any unused Short-term Accrued Sickness Allowance will be transferred
to the Extended-term Paid Sickness leave bucket.
·
Because long-service employees will not have as much
time as short-term employees to accumulate a lot of unused sick leave,
employees with 20 or more years of service, as of January 1, 2009, will
receive two weeks of Short-term Annual Accrued Sickness Allowance, plus one
week of Extended-term Sickness Leave, for a total of three weeks, beginning
January 1, 2010 and annually thereafter.
·
To address Union concerns about instances in which
an employee may exhaust his or her sick time in one year and then incur a
catastrophic illness or injury in a following year, the company will provide an
annual catastrophic sickness allowance, as outlined in this proposal.
·
Employees will be able to use their Short-term
Annual Accrued Sickness Allowances for their own medical and dental
appointments of which will not be counted against them under the absentee
policy as an occurrence.
·
The same-calendar-year restriction for the State
Disability Insurance (SDI) bucket will be removed, providing employees with
greater flexibility in the use of their SDI bucket.
·
Employees on long-term disability as of January 1,
2009, and who return from disability after January 1, 2009 and beyond, will
receive the same one-time allotment of Extended-term Paid Sickness Leave. Upon returning to full-time work for 180
days, this allotment can be used for unrelated disabilities within the 180 days
of returning to work and for any disability after 180 days. The one-time allotment will be based on the
amount of Extended–Term Paid Sickness Leave the employee would have been
afforded in 2009 had they been at work.
·
Employees will only be required to exhaust their
current Short-term Sickness Allowance and 50% of their Extended-term Sickness
Allowance before moving to the Long Term Disability (LTD) plan. Employees who want to exhaust more than 50%
of their accumulated, Extended-Term Sickness Allowance will need to notify the
Company. The Company will notify the
employee of this option when they approach the 50% threshold.
·
The company will establish an employee recognition
program for full-time regular employees with good attendance. Employees who have perfect attendance for a
full calendar year will receive a $100 gift card. Employees who are absent three days or less during a calendar
year will receive a $50 gift card.
Effective January 1,
2010, employees in active service, including existing part-time employees who
subsequently move to full-time positions, who have completed three or more
years of regular employment shall receive the following Catastrophic Sickness
allowance, in addition to all their other sick leave. The employee’s catastrophic sickness allowance will be
replenished at the beginning of each year as follows:
Years of
Service Catastrophic Sickness
Allowance
in Hours
3 40
4 40
5 80
6
120
7
160
8
200
9
240
10
280
Criteria
for accessing Catastrophic Sickness Allowance are as follows:
All available sick
time must be exhausted (including all Short-term Annual Sickness Allowance,
Extended-term Paid Sickness Leave and Bonus Sickness Allowance) before the
Catastrophic Sickness Allowance.
The employee must
wait 14 continuous calendar days following the exhaustion of all available sick
time before accessing the Catastrophic Sickness Allowance. This 14-day waiting period will be without
pay unless the employee chooses to use vacation or holiday credits.
The Catastrophic
Sickness Allowance can only be used to carry the employee through the long-term
disability elimination period.
The Catastrophic
Sickness Allowance will be available for a disabling situation that lasts more
than 14 continuous days. An employee
who returns to work after accessing the Catastrophic Sickness allowance, but
then must leave work within 14 days for reasons related to the original
disability, will be allowed to immediately access any unused Catastrophic
Sickness Allowance, without a new waiting period.
Access to available
Catastrophic Sickness Allowance hours will be facilitated through Disability
Management Services, in conjunction with the employee’s healthcare provider.
Use of the
Catastrophic Sickness Allowance will be governed by existing provisions
contained in Section 4.4 (B) of the collective bargaining agreement.
The Catastrophic
Sickness Allowance is not eligible for Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA)
funding.
Summary
of the restructured Sickness Allowance available to employees each year
beginning in 2010, is as follows:
Short-Term
Sickness Extended-Term
Sickness Catastrophic Sickness
Allowance Allowance
Allowance
80 Hours All unused sick time An amount equivalent to
carried over
from the the employee’s
Extended-
prior year, plus
one Term Sickness Allowance
additional week
for
employees with
20 or
more years of
service
as of 1/1/09.
· Employees will only be required to exhaust their current sick time and
50% of their extended sick time before moving to the LTD plan. Employees who want to exhaust more than 50%
of their accumulated, Extended-Term Sickness Allowance will need to notify the
Company. The Company will notify the
employee of this option when they approach the 50% threshold.
Establish Health
Reimbursement Accounts at Retirement to Enable Employees to: (a) Benefit from Unused Sick Time, (b)
Leverage Pre-Tax Advantages and (c) Offset Retiree Medical Costs.
·
The post-retirement medical benefit structure will
continue.
·
At the Company’s expense, the Company will establish
a Health Reimbursement Account (HRA), at the date of retirement, for all
regular, full-time employees retiring on or after December 1, 2009. The opening balance of the account will be
determined based on the aggregate value of the following components:
The aggregate value of a percentage of the
employee’s total unused Sickness Allowance (including Extended-term Paid
Sickness Leave, Short-term Annual Accrued Sickness Allowance and Bonus Sick
time) at the date of retirement, based on the employee’s straight-time wage
rate at the date of retirement. The
percentage of unused Sickness Allowance to be credited to the employee’s HRA
will be based on years of service as of January 1, 2009, as follows:
·
40+ years (30%);
·
30 – 39 years (25%);
·
20 – 29 years (20%);
·
Less than 20 years (10%);
and 100% of all unused vacation, at the date of
retirement, based on the employee’s straight-time wage rate at the date of
retirement. There will no longer be any
cash payouts for unused vacation at the date of retirement. However, vacation
can still be used up to and prior to retirement. The value of unused vacation payouts at retirement is currently
taxed, whereas there will be no tax withholding when converted to the HRA.
Consistent with IRS regulations, the HRA may be used
by retirees for reimbursement of health-related expenses, such as the retiree’s
share of premiums, health plan co-payments and other out of pocket,
health-related expenses as permitted by IRS regulations and guidelines.
The balance of the employee’s HRA will earn interest
at the 30-year Treasury Bond Rate and contributed to the HRA by the Company,
based on the November average of the preceding year, as the rate changes from
year to year.
Changes to Long-Term
Disability (LTD) Plan
a.
For employees who become eligible for the Long-Term
Disability Plan on or after January 1, 2010: the benefit will be increased from
60% to 65%, for the first year of disability benefits, for employees who have
25 or more years of service; and
increased from 60% to 70%, for the first year of disability benefits, for
employees who have 30 or more years of service. This modification does not apply to employees who are already on
the disability payroll.
b. Effective
the first of the month following ratification, employees who have been offered
a job more than 50 miles (versus the current 75 miles) from their last work
location may elect termination wages equal to one week of pay for each year of
service up to 25 weeks (versus the current 20 weeks) in lieu of accepting the
job.
c. The Company’s C-89
proposal is accepted, excluding the portion of the Company’s proposal
pertaining to social security overpayments, as well as the portion regarding
job displacement vouchers (i.e., the proposed Disability Plan strikethrough
language in Item C under Vocational Rehabilitation regarding terminating
disability benefits one year from reimbursement of vocational rehabilitation
tuition or other related expense under the provisions of the supplement job
displacement voucher).
Use of Contractors – Two classifications
will be added to the “fenced-in” list:
the System Protection Planner and the System Protection Technician.
New Positions – Two new positions
will be created: Senior Cathodic
Protection Specialist and Cathodic Protection Technician. Pipeline Technicians will have bid priority
to the CP Technician position. The
first two Senior CP Specialist positions will be filled from within
Transmission.
a.
A real-time bidding process will be implemented by July 31, 2009.
Should system programming, development or testing cause an unforeseen
delay the Company will keep the Union fully informed. The current pre-qualification process will remain as is.
b.
The Company will post the name and seniority date of
the employee who is the successful bidder within 5 days.
c.
Employee test results will be posted online so that
employees may access their own results.
d.
The Union and the Company will encourage employees
to cancel test sessions within 5 business days if they are not able to attend.
e.
Employees will be required to submit bids for
promotional opportunities until a real-time bidding process is
established. While employees are not
restricted for promotional opportunities at the work location after accepting a
job, bids will no longer remain active, and employees will be required to
re-submit bids for promotion.
Temporary Relief Assignments - Provisions
regarding temporary relief assignments will be modified to address Union
concerns. Clarifies duration and under what conditions V and RV assignments are
used.
·
Beginning
with the next open schedule selection process, for bases that have at least 24
ETRs, the most senior employee will be allowed to be excluded from off-hour
shifts or night work assignments.
·
The
Company will pilot 4-10 hour shifts among the ETR classification, with one
pilot base per region, for one year. If
the pilot is deemed by the Company to be successful, it may be expanded.
·
The
Energy Technician Residential Apprentice (ETR-A) letter agreement on pages
203-204 of the agreement will be eliminated, and the Company will revert back
to the pre-2005 progression, including Field Service Assistant, Field
Technician and Energy Technician-Residential.
Existing ETR-As will continue to progress to ETR, pursuant to a new
letter agreement that will be added to the contract.
Administrative
Support Positions – All jobs in Administrative Support job progressions will have
progression bid rights to all other Administrative Support progressions.
Transmission
and Storage Specialists – Employees in Specialist positions within
Transmission and Storage will have progression bid rights when bidding to the
same job title in either transmission and/or Storage.
Roving
Main Gangs – A subcommittee will be formed (three union and three
management employees) to explore adding more roving main gangs.
Training
– The Western States Utility Workers Industry Apprenticeship and Training Trust
or the ICWUC Center for Worker Health and Safety Education may provide training
to employees without regard to Union affiliation, to the extent such training
is proposed to be conducted on Company time and premises, such opportunities
will require advance discussion with the Company and Company’s consent.
Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) Study Process
The Union and the Company agree to conduct the
following job evaluations under the proposed, revised job evaluation process, (no Union or Company involvement)
for the following classifications:
District Operations
Clerk-4
Gas Measurement
Analyst-5
The parties will develop a mutually
acceptable kick off process before beginning the PAQ.
Union
Dues – Effective January 1, 2009, part-time employees will begin paying
dues after 520 hours of cumulative employment.
Union Business
Union
leaves of absence will be expanded to include conferences.
a. Requests for Union
leaves of absence may be submitted electronically, at any time, provided they
are properly completed and Labor Relations has been given 48 hours (two
business days) to process.
b. The current ten-day
cap on Union leaves of absence for administrative work will be eliminated
during contract negotiations, when mutually agreed to.
c. The Union will
provide the Company with 48 hours notice for requested absences for union
business, as well as minimize the number of employees on leave from the same
work group/department so as not to unduly burden the operations of a location.
d.
The
Union will provide 48-hours notice prior to the beginning of a requested
absence for Union activity on Company property.
Emergency
Postponement of Lunch Periods – Existing and outdated language will be
replaced indicating the Company will comply with applicable federal and state
laws.
Vacation
a.
Modify
current language to change “convenience of the company” to “operating necessity
as determined by the Company”
b.
Clarify
language to indicate that sold vacation less than 40 hours is paid in one lump
sum
c.
Clarify
language to indicate that employees who sell 40 hours of vacation will have the
option of receiving the payment in a lump sum or over 24 pay periods.
d. The Company will
increase holiday vacation slots in the CCC (for Christmas and New Years), for
the term of this agreement, for classifications that have more than 25
incumbents. The regular and bi-lingual
slots will be kept separate, with one additional slot afforded to each. These additional vacation slots will be
communicated to employees through the local shop committees.
e. In addition to the
CCC, one additional holiday vacation slot (for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New
Years) will be added at each base for Distribution Field for the term of this
agreement. This change will be
communicated through the local shop committee.
Use of Personal
Vehicles for Company Business - Add language clarifying that the Company will use
the IRS standard mileage rate to reimburse employees for Company business
miles.
Coveralls - Coveralls will be
provided to three additional classifications:
the Laboratory Assistant, Laboratory Technician and the Lead Laboratory
Technician.
Military Service
a.
The
Veteran’s Seniority Credit will be extended to employees who served in active
duty in the U.S. Armed Forces or National Guard in the Afghanistan/Iraq
conflicts which resulted from the events of September 11, 2001.
b.
A
new letter agreement will be added to the contract outlining military leave of
absence benefits afforded to full-time employees called to serve in the
Afghanistan/Iraq conflicts.
c.
A new letter agreement will be added to the
contract outlining military leave of absence benefits afforded to part-time
employees called to serve in the Afghanistan/Iraq conflicts.
Alternative Dispute
Resolution
– A new letter agreement will be added to the contract outlining changes to the
ADR process (e.g., in cases where ADR is being used for discipline and the
Company contemplates discipline greater than two days off, the Local union
president or their designee must approve the ADR resolution).
Arbitration – The arbitrator
panel will be expanded, and if a selected arbitrator is not available within
six months, the parties may mutually agree to use the very next arbitrator on
the list if available within six months.
The parties agree to
remove the following letter agreements from the contract:
a. The Energy
Technician Distribution letter agreement on page 194, as it is no longer
applicable.
b. The letter agreement
on page 199 regarding direct deposit of reimbursable expenses, as this has
already been implemented.
c. The letter agreement
on page 205 regarding Field Technicians, as it is no longer applicable.
d. The letter agreement
on page 206, as implementation of an on-line bidding system has been completed.
Term of Agreement - The term of the
agreement will be three years, from February 1, 2009 to and including September
30, 2011.