09-15-2009 KC STAR FURLOUGH: GONE AND UNREACHABLE Many Kansas City Star editorial employees are upset as they learn the rules for their upcoming mandatory one-week furlough, according to sources at the Star. Publisher Mark Zieman announced the mandatory furlough in August in a memo to employees that also included wage freezes and plans for voluntary separations: "I'm sorry to inform you that The Star will be joining many other companies and newspapers across the country by instituting a one-week unpaid furlough program for most employees. The furlough period will run through the remainder of this year. Next week, you will be receiving a scheduling form to complete and return to your manager, and a Q&A to assist you in understanding how the program works." However, as employees are beginning to sign up for their furloughs, they are also learning they will not have access to their email or be permitted to check phone messages. It means if you send an email or attempt to call a reporter during his/her furlough week you simply will not get a response (the "out of office" email message is not sent to non-Star employees). According to insiders, some dedicated Star employees are outraged that they will not be able to stay in contact with sources for a week; others have reluctantly accepted it. The blame for the "no contact" policy has been placed on attorneys, who reportedly do not want any employees saying they worked during the furlough period and then ask to be paid.
FURLOUGH CONFUSION Here's one for you. The memo states that if you're non-exempt that you can either take your furlough for a week or break it down to individual days. While this might be true in some departments at the star, it's not true in the department I work in. In my department, you can take a week or you can take your time by showing up at work a half hour or hour late. The actual time off for every single day is determined by the head foreman of my department and adds up to 2.5 hours a week for 14 weeks. Quite the pain in the ass. Taking single days is not an option. Which is bullshit, but then again we have lost about half of our department in the last 2 years. Just think of the hurt the star would have been in if we were still on those old hoe's. The old presses were very labor intensive. Not so much with the kba's. Actually taking a week when you would like to is very tough because of the schedule. Many weeks are closed because almost every Tuesday or Friday for the rest of the year is closed because those days are maxed out. Meaning no more off on those days. One more for you. Holiday pay. All non-exempt employees will continue to be paid for the 6 holidays as they occur if the employee is scheduled and works on that holiday. If the holiday falls on an employees day off they will not be paid holiday pay. They will be given a day off at a later date in compensation. It's kind of like being an exempt, non-exempt employee. In my department, the only people that work every day they are scheduled no matter what the holiday is.....the guys who work nights on the daily. We really don't see how this saves the star money, but they seem to think it will. ---Some Guy
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