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[L-AS] REVISED Pyramid Pay/Payroll Issues Update

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants

[Note: AFA has reissued this communication with additional information regarding pyramiding pay due to membership feedback.]

AFA is working daily on payroll issues.  In January 2018 we mediated payroll issues with management which was overseen by Arbitrator Horowitz.  Many of the payroll resolutions were published in the MEC Grievance Committee Update for Quarter 1, 2018 on February 23, 2018.  Here’s the latest update:

  1. The MEC appointed a Payroll Representative who works under the MEC Grievance Committee, Kiara Jenkins.  She began work on June 1, 2018 and is responsible for  advocating for Flights Attendants in regard to payroll issues. Please contact her if it is  believed there is an outstanding payroll issue that needs resolution.
  2. Grievance 36-99-2-208-17: Violation of §11.G.4 Compensation for Picked Up Reserve Days, was retroactively sustained.  AFA requested the payroll department audit the past three years of this violation and pay those wrongly denied 1 TFP if a reserve day is converted to ER, and s/he is subsequently not used.  The payouts are being paid out periodically since May 2018 and will continue until the full audit is complete.
  3. JCTE is not paying the greater of actual or scheduled for trips scheduled to release after midnight but that subsequently release prior to midnight. This seems to happen mostly when the original trip contains minimum pay rules (MPRs).  AFA is requesting that JCTE be programmed so that the value of the trip does not drop below the original value.  The fix is expected to be delivered to the payroll analysts for test next week.  If the test goes well the fix will be released into production in early August 2018.
  4. The ability for crew members to see rosters going back three months is still not programmed despite AFA’s continued requests.  It is a core Jeppesen change which is taking time. Management advised that this correction should be made sometime in Q4 2018.  Payroll is sending out notifications to all Flight Attendants’ company email to remind Flight Attendants to print her or his schedule prior to its disappearance.
  5. JCTE is incorrectly applying and/or removing minimum pay rules (MPRs) on trips that have been split at a SIP point.  The Company will investigate whether this issue has been fixed by the latest release of the program.  Crew Scheduling is going to handle this manually until fixed.  Management is researching a permanent fix date.
  6. As published in the last update, Activity Claim Forms will not be disputed by management if the screen shot is not provided, however, the Company reserves the right to research the underlying error and recover any overpayment form the Flight Attendant.  In Washington, this research mush be completed, and a decision reached, within 90 days of the pay issue date in dispute for funds to be returned to the Company.   Presently we are in dispute over the other states; for instance, in California funds, once paid, cannot be required to be returned to the Company without the employee’s approval.  There is a caveat for requesting pay however, if a Flight Attendant requests pay s/he is not due, s/he could be brought in for an investigation.  To protect the Flight Attendant’s interests, if it is possible, we recommend keeping evidence which proves the request the Flight Attendant is making.
  7. The Company was delayed in its reporting back on its position on pyramiding pay* issues. It eventually reported back on March 13, 2018, and agreed that all pay provisions of the Collective Bargaining Agreement pyramid** except for reassignments and over duty do not pyramid** with each other.  Presently we are working on restitution based on this agreement.  AFA is advocating for the quickest and most advantages outcome for all Flight Attendants.  We will report back when a final resolution is decided.

*     Pyramiding pay = A pay application in which hours (i.e. TFP credit) are counted more than once for the purpose of ‘overtime’ (i.e. premium pay).

**   Pyramid (verb) = To pay more than one premium based on the same TFP credit (i.e. to stack more than one premium pay application on the same flying/TFP).

Example:

A Seattle Flight Attendant flies a San Diego turn worth 6.0 TFP on a holiday. Due to delays, the Flight Attendant experiences a 12:45 duty day.

S/he will be paid 5.0 TFP at double time (2.0x) and pyramiding pay of 1.0 TFP at triple time (3.0x) because the double time (2.0x) holiday premium pyramids with the double time (2.0x) over-duty premium due to duty exceeding 12:30. (See Section 21.H [Compensation: Holiday Premium] and Section 8.F.1 [Hours of Service: Over-Duty Pay.)

Note that the pyramiding double time (2.0x) of holiday pay and double time (2.0x) of over-duty pay results in triple time (3.0x) and not quadruple time (4.0x) because the 1.0 TFP is paid only once at straight time (1.0x) but is counted separately for holiday premium and over-duty pay.

Here is the math:

Holiday pyramiding pay: 2.0x holiday premium – 1.0x straight pay = 1.0x holiday pyramiding pay

Over-duty pyramiding pay: 2.0x over-duty pay – 1.0x straight pay = 1.0x over-duty pyramiding pay

Total pyramiding pay: 1.0x straight pay + 1.0x holiday pyramiding pay + 1.0x over-duty pyramiding pay = 3.0x pyramiding pay

AFA is hearing chatter wondering why AFA isn’t filing lawsuits on the pay issues.  The reason is two-fold: first, we use the arbitration process pursuant to our collective bargaining agreement and the Railway Labor Act; and second, most if not all, payroll issues AFA brought forward to the Company were agreed to by the Company and that continues to be the case.

If there are any additional payroll issues that come to light, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Kiara Jenkins at payroll@afaalaska.org.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Terry Taylor, Mario de’Medici, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green, Brice McGee; and MEC Grievance Committee Chairperson Stephanie Adams

[L-AS] Parking Stipend Errors

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants

AFA was advised of management errors in processing the $75 parking stipend that is a negotiated part of the Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement (JCBA).  If you requested, but did not receive, your parking stipend for the months of May and/or June, please contact your base supervisor immediately and cc your LEC Officers.

As a reminder, if you were part of the WageWorks commuter program you should have been reimbursed for the month of May, which means your $75 stipend did not start until the payout month of June.

AFA is working with management to get the issue resolved as quickly as possible.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Terry Taylor, Mario de’Medici, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green, Brice McGee; and MEC Grievance Committee Chairperson Stephanie Adams

[L-AS] Open Time Grievance

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants

On May 17, AFA filed grievance #36-99-2-130-18, requesting that Alaska Airlines management investigate the circumstances regarding the Company’s alleged violation of Section 12.C.3 “Trading Procedures”.  The grievance contends that the Company’s Jeppesen Crew Access (JCA) Open Time Trading System failed to synchronize time across the system, resulting in some users being able to complete their tasks while others are temporarily blocked from trades, pick-ups and/or drops.

After investigating the concern, management provided the following email response:

Jeppesen found two issues that need to be resolved.  The first issue has to do with the worker processes that handle the request and what it thinks is the current time, which is stored in a variable Jeppesen refers to as “NOW”.  Each worker process has its own NOW variable and if a worker process has been idle, its NOW variable gets out of date and when the first request comes in, for example when Open Time trading begins, it still believes the Trade window is still closed because NOW lags behind the system time.    The second issue is the Transaction Report timestamp is the time it logs the transaction is logged and not the NOW time.

Jeppesen has proposed the following solutions to address these two issues. The first is the worker processes will ensure the NOW variable is updated with the latest system time, rounded down to the minute (Note:  The NOW time granularity is at the minute level), so if a worker process has been idle, it will have the current system time.   The second change is to add the system time used in the processing of the request to the message so the FA and the transaction log knows what the system time is.  For example “Trip window has not yet opened for 24198” will be changed to something like “Time HH:MM, trip window has not yet opened for 24198”.  Jeppesen and AS believes these changes will resolve the issue.

Jeppesen will be providing an update in the next week concerning the interim solution.  We are expecting Alaska Airlines management to sustain the grievance and work with us on improving your Open Time processing.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Terry Taylor, Mario de’Medici, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green, Brice McGee; and MEC Scheduling Committee Chairperson Jake Jones

[L-AS] Introducing Your MEC Grievance Committee Payroll Representative

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants

Your Master Executive Council (MEC) conducted interviews earlier this month for the new MEC Grievance Committee Payroll Representative position. The MEC would like to thank the candidates who demonstrated willingness to represent our Flight Attendants. After thorough deliberation, the MEC has appointed Kiara Jenkins to the position.

About Kiara

Kiara Jenkins spent her childhood on the island of Guam and, in 2008, graduated from Olympia High School in Olympia, WA.  Before pursuing a career as a Flight Attendant, she worked at Starbucks as a supervisor and coached club and high school volleyball for 3 years. She has been ANC, SEA, and LAX-based since joining the Alaska family in 2011. Previously, she served as the Government Affairs Committee Chairperson for Council 18 in LAX. On any given day, Kiara can be found hosting homemade dinners for friends, barbecuing outdoors, or spending quality time with her family.

About The Position

The Payroll Representative works under the umbrella of the MEC Grievance Committee and is  responsible for working with management to advocate for Flight Attendant interests in all matters pertaining to Flight Attendant pay.  In addition, the Payroll Representative also works closely with the Benefits, Scheduling, and Reserve Committees to handle and assist in the resolution of Flight Attendant pay concerns and issues.  Additional information about the position can be found by clicking here.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Terry Taylor, Mario de’Medici, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green, Brice McGee; and MEC Grievance Committee Chairperson Stephanie Adams

AFA Issue Reporting and Resolution

Last year, your AFA Alaska Master Executive Council (MEC) introduced the AFA Alaska online support center.  The system is designed for you to document and report scheduling and reserve concerns, situations where you might be facing discipline, potential contractual grievances, and any other issue where you might need AFA support.  The system also allows AFA representatives to better track issues that are occurring, identify trends, and address and resolve issues with management.

You can access the system using the following link:

Click here to access the AFA Alaska Online Support Center

Reporting New Issues

You can report a new issue in the system by opening a ticket, just follow these steps:

  1. Visit http://support.afaalaska.org/
  2. Click the blue “Open a New Ticket” button
  3. Fill in your personal information (including a non-company email address)
  4. Select the help topic that relates to the issue
  5. Fill in the issue-specific information and provide details

From this screen, you’ll also be able to attach pictures, PDF files, screenshots, and other information that will help your AFA representatives to have more information available about the issue.

Once you’ve opened a ticket, you’ll receive a confirmation email and with a ticket number.  Behind the scenes, your ticket will be assigned to an AFA representative who will assist you with the issue.

What Happens Next

The AFA representative assigned to your case will work with management to determine a resolution.  If management agrees, then the representative will contact you and advise you of the resolution.  If AFA and management do not agree, the AFA representative might escalate the issue.

What are SRB and ADR?

When the AFA representative assigned to your case and management are unable to come to a mutually acceptable resolution, the AFA representative might escalate the issue to Scheduling Review Board (SRB) if the issue is related to scheduling or Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) for all other issues.

SRB and ADR meetings are typically held every other week. Issues can sometimes take a few months to resolve based on the work and discussion involved between management and AFA. If an issue gets resolved in SRB/ADR, the AFA representative assigned to your case will contact  you and advise you of the outcome.

Grievances

If there is no resolution in SRB or ADR and there is a contractual violation, AFA will file a grievance.  Contractual grievances must go through the grievance procedures as outlined in section 19 of the Flight Attendant Contract.  If the grievance is not resolved there, it may be escalated to the System Board of Adjustment, where the case would be heard before a neutral arbitrator.  Information about the System Board of Adjustment can be found in section 20 of the Flight Attendant Contract.

Checking on Open Issues 

With your ticket number, you can track the status of the ticket online, add additional information and attachments for your AFA representative to have available.  To check on your ticket:

  1. Visit http://support.afaalaska.org
  2. Click the green “Check Ticket Status” button
  3. Enter your email address and ticket number
  4. Click the “View Ticket” button

As always, the more information and evidence you attach to the ticket (i.e., screenshots, emails, etc.), the better your AFA representatives can assist you.

Questions?

If you have questions about reporting issues to AFA or how issues get resolved, please contact your Local Grievance Committee.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Terry Taylor, Mario de’Medici, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green, Brice McGee; and MEC Grievance Committee Chairperson Stephanie Adams

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