Parting gift: A kick in the TVA

The Milwaukee Newspaper Guild has filed a grievance and is continuing to work on a case involving vacation payout.

The case in question involves the Transitional Vacation Accounts (TVAs), which affect employees hired since the merger. Journal Sentinel Inc. management wanted those people to be placed on an earn-as-you-go vacation system. Thus, those workers no longer accrue vacation in the previous year; they accrue it during the current year.

The big difference under the new system: If an employee leaves the job on June 30, he or she would only be eligible for half of that year's vacation pay, not the full amount as had been the case under the old system. To compensate these people, the TVAs were established to provide some payback to employees who had their vacation accrual system changed.

Problems arose when Waukesha Bureau reporter Reid Epstein recently left the company. Epstein would have qualified for a third week of vacation later this year. The TVA language says, "Each account will contain the same amount of vacation as the affected employee would be entitled to take during 2006."

The Guild argues Epstein should receive three weeks from his TVA, because that's the amount of vacation he would have received in 2006.
The company argues Epstein should only get two weeks from his TVA,
because that's what he was eligible for when he left.

Furthermore, Epstein had taken more than two weeks of vacation already
in 2006, figuring he had three weeks coming this year. The company deducted
the days in excess of two weeks from the amount that was paid out from his
TVA.

The Guild believes this violates the contract provision that states employees will not be required to reimburse the employer for taking more vacation than was earned at the time of departure.

A grievance hearing was held recently, and the grievance was denied. That denial has been appealed.