Whither Merit Pay?

Several IAPE members have asked about the possibility of receiving a merit pay increase, and whether Dow Jones has instituted restrictions on merit raises. A review of Dow Jones pay data from the last quarter shows 33 IAPE-represented employees received additional pay adjustments after our negotiated pay increases were issued last year. Most of those were related to promotions and other job changes, though some appear to have been actual merit raises.

That’s a surprisingly low number of pay hikes for deserving top employees -- less than 3% of IAPE membership -- given reports of the company’s performance, and that “Dow Jones had its largest quarterly profit since News Corp acquired it in 2007.” Still, those data show salary adjustments do still happen at Dow Jones. Nothing in the IAPE/DJ contract restricts management’s ability to increase your compensation at any time.

With the end of the fiscal year in sight, members have started to have 2021 merit pay conversations with managers. Some have asked for an IAPE pay review to help prepare for those discussions. An IAPE review is a great way to see how you compare to peers with the same title, working in the same department, location and even age range.

If you’re thinking of asking for a merit raise this year, consider an in-depth look at your rate of pay before meeting with your manager. Email payreview@iape1096.org for assistance.

Did You File For Holiday Pay?
We hope you all had a chance to enjoy your long weekend, whether you had Presidents’ Day off here in the U.S., or you’re one of our members in Canada who celebrated Family Day. For those of you who were required to work on Monday, remember, you’re entitled to Holiday Pay!

Articles VIII-A and VIII-B of the IAPE/DJ contract describe our Holiday Pay benefit: 1.5X your regular pay for hours you would normally work, and double-time for any extra hours worked on Monday. Plus, you’re eligible for an additional day off in lieu of the holiday.

File for your holiday hours in Workday -- and email union@iape1096.org if you have any Holiday Pay questions.

T&E Policy Enforcement?
Members have contacted the IAPE office to inquire about enforcement notices from the Dow Jones Amex Administrator. The Dow Jones Travel & Expense Policy contains restrictions against using corporate credit cards for personal expenses, known as the “Three Strike'' Policy. While this has long been a component of the T&E Policy, emails from the Administrator suggest the company has only started enforcing this restriction recently.

We’re not sure why, but we intend to find out. If you’ve received a “Three Strike” notice concerning your use of a corporate card, or if you have any questions about the company’s expense policy, please reach out to union@iape1096.org.

Unused FSA Funds & Dependent Care Reset
In case you missed these items in recent messages from Dow Jones, the company has announced it will permit unused 2020 flex spending account funds to carry over into 2021. Previously, Dow Jones only allowed this change for dependent care FSA sums, claiming that extending the same benefit for the medical FSA would impact employees who switched from POS to CDHP medical coverage for 2021. Members who have credits in their 2020 FSA accounts can expect to receive email notices from the company.

And in a Feb. 9 note to staff from Kamilah Mitchell-Thomas, Dow Jones reminded employees that the $700 dependent care benefit had been “reset” for 2021, effective Jan. 1. This is not a new benefit, but simply a refreshing of available funds with the new year upon us.

Contract 101 - Job Security
The IAPE Contract 101 class returns on Wednesday, Feb. 24 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern time. Next week’s class is a rerun of a popular offering from last year: Job Security. In this class, we’ll cover topics like just cause protections against discipline and dismissal, seniority protection, layoffs, severance pay and separation benefits, job postings and even disability pay and sick leave.

Whether you’re an IAPE newcomer or a veteran Dow Jones employee, it never hurts to know more about your rights under the current contract. Register for this and other classes on the IAPE Events Page -- we hope to see you next week!

IAPE @ Work: Still Talking Covid

Looking for Help at Home
More than ten months after Dow Jones employees were first instructed to work from their homes in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, Dow Jones and IAPE are still at odds over additional assistance for staff.

During a Jan. 20 meeting between union and management representatives, Dow Jones failed to respond to any of the union’s remaining Covid proposals: additional dependent care assistance and an increase to the equipment and technology stipend.

At a Labor/Management Committee meeting on Jan. 28, IAPE asked for clarification on the types of equipment now eligible for reimbursement under the IAPE physical fitness reimbursement program (Dow Jones confirmed that, yes, bicycle purchases are covered expenses), as well as plans for returning to offices and whether management is monitoring vaccine availability for employees of media companies.

If you have a question about the current work environment and you can’t find the answer on the Dow Jones Coronavirus microsite, contact the union office or your area IAPE representative.

Goal-Setting, Promotions, Social Media and Job Titles
At that same Jan. 28 meeting, the Labor/Management group discussed a number of other items, including goal-setting in the new Glint performance-review system. IAPE members who had been instructed to enter goals provided by their manager have asked whether managers have the ability to insert those goals into the Glint system themselves. The answer, apparently, is yes, but that there is no difference in how that information is recorded, regardless of whether the goal is entered by the employee or manager.

Just a reminder: setting goals is an optional activity for employees.

IAPE also shared member concerns about promotions -- whether they are available, why they take so long to be approved, and so on. The union also questioned revisions to the News social media policy, and asked for examples of what management believes is, and is not, acceptable for staff to share, post and tweet.

The Dow Jones and IAPE Committee discussed a formal job classification for employees holding the Columnist job title, and a proposal to reclassify staff in the Heard on the Street section as “Heard Writers.”

The IAPE/DJ contract requires formal job classification and pay scale for titles occupied by three or more IAPE-represented employees. Accurate classifications are important for determining pay increases and seniority within a department.

Cutting Part-Time Pay? That’s A Grievance!
Dow Jones recently informed IAPE it was unilaterally ending a long-standing practice in Bowling Green, Ohio, where part-time employees have historically been paid for a full shift regardless of the number of hours they were required to work.

IAPE has filed a grievance on behalf of two current part-timers to have that paid time restored. The grievance was discussed at the most-recent meeting of IAPE and Dow Jones joint committees on Jan. 28. Other pending grievances include disputes over disciplinary letters and incentive payments.

If you have a workplace concern you believe should be addressed by the IAPE Grievance, Classification or Labor/Management committees, please contact IAPE at union@iape1096.org.

IAPE 101 on Wednesday, 2 p.m. ET 
What is a union? How did I end up in one? What are the benefits of being in a union? How does IAPE work? All of these questions and more will be answered at this new member orientation for those brand new to IAPE and veteran members alike. If you’ve recently joined Dow Jones, or if you’ve recently been reclassified into an IAPE-represented title, and you’ve been wondering what it means to be in a union, this is the class for you!

See the IAPE Events Page to register and receive a Zoom link for this information session.

New Dues Rates Take Effect This Week

IAPE members who have been paying union dues at a rate of $22.04 per pay period will notice an increase in dues payments in tomorrow’s pay deposits. The elimination of the cap on union dues payments, approved by members in last year’s referendum vote, takes effect this week.

Members paid salaries in excess of $81,862 will see union dues calculated at the same rate as members paid below that threshold: 0.7% of regular pay (and incentive payments for members in sales).

Any IAPE member who has questions about this calculation of union dues should reach out to the IAPE office by emailing union@iape1096.org.

Contract 101: Let’s Talk About Time Off

IAPE’s Contract 101 series resumes on Wednesday afternoon with a fresh look at paid time off: your vacation time, comp time, personal days and contract holidays. We’ll talk about the special “rollover” of unused 2020 vacation time, and what happens if you leave the company without using your accrued time off.

Join us via Zoom on Jan. 13 at 2:00 p.m. EST. Register on the IAPE Events page to receive your meeting invitation.

Looking Ahead to the Long Weekend
With next weekend being the first long weekend of 2021, this is as good a time as any to remind you of our contract’s Holiday Pay provisions (which we’ll also discuss during Wednesday’s Contract 101 session).

Under the terms of the IAPE/Dow Jones collective agreement, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a recognized holiday. If you are a U.S.-based employee and you’re required to work next Monday, you’re entitled to Holiday Pay: that’s time-and-one-half for all regular hours worked, and double-time for any extra hours. You’re also entitled to an additional day off in lieu of the holiday, or an extra day’s pay at the company’s discretion.

(For holidays between Jan. 1 and Jul. 3, management has the discretion to choose the extra day over extra pay. The employee may opt for pay instead of a banked day off for holidays worked between Jul. 3 and Dec. 31.)

We’re Hiring!
IAPE is seeking a part-time assistant to the Executive Director and President to manage administrative duties in our Princeton, NJ, office, though this role will be a work-from-home position through the end of the current pandemic. The ideal candidate is someone with excellent skills in the areas of organization, attention to detail, time management, ability to manage multiple tasks, prioritize and problem solve.

See our job posting for full details, and please pass it along to anyone you think might be interested.

Our Position on Goal Setting

As many of you know, Dow Jones is implementing a new performance review system that moves away from numerical ratings and encourages more dialogue between employees and managers. This week's training sessions for the new system, Glint, have prompted questions from IAPE members, which we would like to briefly address.

We want to emphasize two points about this new process, available in Dow Jones information documents and communicated to staff last month in an email from Kamilah Mitchell Thomas:

First, self-assessments will continue to be optional (though management has stressed they are “strongly encouraged”). This has long been the situation for IAPE-represented employees, as we advised in a message to members last July.

Second, entering your own goals is also voluntary. The addition of goals is considered part of “Employee Completes Prep,” all of which is labeled as “optional.”

Similar to our message last year, we realize these employee/manager discussions are often employees’ best opportunities to talk about goals, expectations, performance and pay. IAPE is not opposed to members setting their own goals -- we simply want you to know that you are not required to submit yours if you would rather have your manager set those targets for you.

If you do choose to engage in this “self-reflection,” please know you are under no obligation to admit any shortcomings. A better approach may be offering suggestions your manager can follow to help you meet performance targets.

We continue to believe that setting expectations and evaluating performance are management functions, but we also want to be clear that this should not in any way prevent you from having constructive conversations with your boss about your future at Dow Jones.

Finally, we would like to remind you that Article XXI of the IAPE/DJ collective agreement states, “The Company and the Union agree that performance evaluations under this Article shall not be considered disciplinary actions.” That’s important -- IAPE-represented employees are always entitled to union representation during disciplinary meetings, and Article XI of the contract requires at least three hours’ advance notice of disciplinary meetings (except “in the event of exigent circumstances”). A discussion of disciplinary action should not occur during a meeting to talk about goals or expectations.

If your manager ever invites you to a disciplinary meeting, please contact an IAPE director or steward, or email union@iape1096.org for assistance.

A Year of Challenges and Accomplishments (and Looking Forward to 2021)

This year has been filled with unusual challenges, requiring us all to rise above the adversity 2020 has thrown our way. The same is true for your union.

Before the pandemic, IAPE successfully pushed Dow Jones to permit employees who have taken parental leave to make use of the benefit again without any waiting period. The union also continued to aggressively enforce terms of the 2019-22 collective agreement, with the highest number of grievances in almost a decade filed to protect the rights of IAPE-represented employees.

When offices closed as a result of Covid, IAPE advocated for Dow Jones to provide benefits such as Life/Work Balance leave and the carryover of vacation time into 2021. IAPE proposed changes to the physical fitness benefit to allow reimbursement of expenses for home gym equipment, and continues to insist that Dow Jones negotiate over additional relief proposals for home-office equipment needs, dependent care and internet expenses.

In the midst of all this, IAPE members elected a new slate of officers and leaders to the union’s Board of Directors, and voted in favor of a more equitable union dues structure by eliminating the bi-weekly cap on dues payments.

Your IAPE representatives will continue to build a stronger union in 2021 by reaching out to even more members and by restarting quarterly “location” meetings to check in with all members on a regular basis.

IAPE is also expanding on its training program for union members. Taking what began as conference-room conversations in Princeton and New York, IAPE 101, Contract 101 and Steward 101 sessions will continue to be held via Zoom to reach IAPE members wherever they work.

Meanwhile, IAPE leaders in 2021 plan to conduct a review of the union’s bylaws and update that document as necessary to ensure IAPE operates as efficiently as possible.

As this year of challenges draws to a close, all IAPE representatives offer very best wishes to members everywhere for a peaceful end to 2020 and a brighter 2021.

Performance Evaluations
Dow Jones has introduced a new performance evaluation system intended to provide a different approach to goal setting, and to initiate more-frequent check-in conversations between employees and managers on performance and growth. Annual evaluations will also change from a number-rating system to labels of “thriving,” “performing,” “needs improvement” and “new to role.”

Not changing are requirements for self-evaluations -- which will still be voluntary, but are noted as “strongly encouraged.” Ratings will continue to be assigned by managers, and the visibility of those ratings will remain between employees and their manager(s) and HR.

If you have questions about the new performance evaluation process, please review recent communications from Dow Jones, or contact IAPE at union@iape1096.org.

2021 CWA Scholarship
IAPE’s parent union, the Communications Workers of America (CWA), is pleased to announce the CWA Joe Beirne Foundation has approved the awarding of 16 partial college scholarships of $4,000 each for two years. Eligible for the scholarships for the 2021-22 academic year are CWA members, their spouses, children, and grandchildren, including the dependents of retired, laid-off, or deceased members. Applications are available online for submission on the Foundation’s website at http://cwa-union.org/beirne-application. 

Holiday Hours
The IAPE office will be closed on Christmas Day, Dec. 25 and New Year’s Day, Jan. 1, and will close at noon on Dec. 24 and 31.

New Board Meets, Covid Benefits at the Center of Discussion

IAPE’s newly constituted Board of Directors held its first meeting Saturday, Dec. 12. Topics included the stalled negotiations with Dow Jones regarding additional Covid-related benefits, and the need to raise company awareness about the hardships many of our members are facing while working from home. Please continue to tell us about your experiences and your needs. And look for more from us in the New Year about how we can all push this issue forward. 

The Board also discussed plans for member outreach in 2021 that will encourage employees to get involved in important union initiatives, including promoting diversity in the workplace. The BOD also approved a resolution recognizing outgoing members from the 2017-2020 Board for all of their efforts on behalf of the union. See the full resolution, “Thank You, Yogi & Directors.”

Holiday Pay & Comp Time Reminder
Remember, if you are required to work on any holidays recognized in the IAPE contract (Christmas Day, Boxing Day in Canada and New Year’s Day), you’re entitled to Holiday Pay: time-and-one-half for regular hours worked (double-time for additional hours) and an extra day off in lieu of the holiday. (For holidays worked from July through the end of the year, you have the discretion to choose an extra day’s pay instead of the day off.)

Another reminder for any overtime-exempt employees with scheduled vacation time: If you’re assigned more than two hours of work on a scheduled day off -- a vacation day, personal day or weekend day -- you’re entitled to comp time for that extra work. Unused comp time hours carry over into the next calendar year, and may be cashed out 30 days after they are earned. 

Don’t let your extra work go unaccounted -- it’s your time and money. If you have questions about how to file for your extra time, send us a note or reach out to one of your local representatives.

Resolution: Thank You, Yogi & Directors

Whereas Yogita Patel served as IAPE President from December 1, 2017 through November 30, 2020, and;

Whereas Yogi decided not to run for a second term and has returned to her former position at Dow Jones, and;

Whereas a number of other Directors also opted to step away from the IAPE Board after a number of years of valuable service to the Board and IAPE members, and;

Whereas the 2017-20 edition of the IAPE Board accomplished a number of goals, notably providing information to members about the pursuit of pay equity at Dow Jones, achieving a 2019 contract with larger pay increases than IAPE members have received in a decade, and the elimination of the IAPE membership dues cap;

Therefore, the IAPE Board of Directors recognize and thank the following outgoing Officers and Directors for their contributions to IAPE TNG-CWA Local 1096:

Yogita Patel - President
Michael Wursthorn - Vice President
Siobhan Hughes - Secretary
Zusha Elinson - Classification Director, News
Joe Palazzolo - Location Director, Northeast
Cezary Podkul - Location Director, Northeast
Louise Radnofsky - Location Director, Southeast
John Jurgensen - Location Director, Midwest
Alejandro Lazo - Location Director, Northwest

Directors Kick Off New Term; IAPE Announcements

Dec. 1 marked the beginning of the new term for the IAPE Board of Directors, which runs through Nov. 30, 2023. Following is a list of the new officers and directors:

Officers:

President/CWA Delegate - Jodi Green

Vice-President/CWA Delegate - Eleanor Miller

Treasurer/CWA Delegate - Austen Hufford

Secretary/CWA Delegate - Brent Kendall

Location Directors: (Candidates must be employed in the geographic location they wish to represent.)

Northeast - Laura Casey, Margaret Lin, Shalini Ramachandran, Joseph Walker

Mid-Atlantic - Patricia Corley, Whitney Henderson, Alisha Stegall

Southeast - Jess Bravin, Joshua Jamerson

Northwest - Georgia Wells

Southwest - Alexandra Berzon

Canada - Vipal Monga

Midwest - OPEN

Classification Directors: (Candidates must be employed in the job classification they wish to represent.)

Administrative/Advertising - OPEN

News - Ian Lovett

Production - Roger Pacheco

Technology - Vincent Rickey

IAPE Directors are all very excited to pick up the baton passed to them by the previous Board, and intend to continue pushing the company to bargain with the Union regarding Covid benefits and enforcing terms of the IAPE contract through the grievance process and labor/management committee.  

Vacancies Filled
The new Board has already been busy this week accomplishing a number of housekeeping items, including the completion of their first order of business: nominating and filling of two open positions (Location Director - Canada and Classification Director - Technology). Vacancies still exist for the positions of Location Director - Midwest and Classification Director - Administrative/Advertising. Any IAPE member interested in either of these positions should reach out to union@iape1096.org.  

Vacation Rollover
IAPE reps met with the company on Thursday for monthly Labor/Management, Grievance and Classification discussions. The Union initiated a new grievance challenging disciplinary memos issued to a Princeton member, and discussed a number of other grievances and employee concerns. Among those: IAPE received confirmation that this year’s special carryover of vacation, up to 5 unused 2020 vacation days, will not require any action on the part of employees. Available vacation days appearing in Workday as of Dec. 31 will automatically be credited to employees’  2021 vacation accounts. Please keep in mind that carryover vacation days must be used by Mar. 31, 2021, or they will disappear.

Steward Training & IAPE Board Meeting
Two reminders for IAPE members: the final Steward 101 training of 2020 is coming up on Dec. 9, and the first Board of Directors meeting of the new board will be held via Zoom on Dec. 12.  As mentioned in previous newsletters, this meeting is open to any IAPE members who would like to attend. Sign up here for these events. 

Holiday Pay and Training Reminders

It’s Thanksgiving on Thursday, and the officers, directors and staff of IAPE would like to extend best wishes to our members working in the United States for a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

If you are not scheduled to work on Thursday, please enjoy your holiday! But if you are required to work, please remember to file for your Holiday Pay!

The collective agreement between IAPE and Dow Jones requires time-and-one-half for all regular hours worked on a holiday (double-time for extra hours) plus an additional day off in lieu of the holiday or an additional day’s pay.

The contract gives IAPE-represented employees the discretion to choose additional pay over an additional day off for all holidays worked after July 3rd in any calendar year. If you are assigned to work Thursday and you want extra pay instead of an additional day off, please inform your manager.

You may file for your Holiday Pay through Workday. If you have any questions about pay for working on a holiday or receiving your extra day’s pay or day off (again, your choice), please contact the IAPE office.

Steward Training Dec. 9
IAPE is always looking to add to its steward ranks and in Steward 101 you’ll learn your role and rights as a steward as well as the best practices to properly represent, advocate, and empower your fellow members. Register here to attend this class and to see other upcoming training opportunities and IAPE events.

Board of Directors Meets Dec. 12
Among those events is the next meeting of the IAPE Board of Directors, scheduled to be conducted via Zoom on Dec. 12. This will be the first meeting for the new IAPE Board and incoming president Jodi Green, set to begin their terms of office on Dec. 1.

IAPE Board meetings are open to IAPE members. To join, please register at our Events page.