Holidays

SECTION 1. The following legal holidays:  New Year's Day, President's Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve Day, and Christmas Day are to be strictly observed, and only work of a necessary or emergency nature is to be performed. The Columbus Day Holiday will be observed as follows: July 3, 2006, in 2007 as a Floating Holiday; in 2008, July 3^rd; in 2009, July 6.

SECTION 2. When any of the holidays in Section 1 occur on Saturday, such holidays will be observed on the preceding Friday, except for shift employees whose assigned schedule includes Saturday, in which case Saturday will be the observed holiday for these shift employees. An employee who works either Friday or Saturday or both will be paid at the rate of time and one-half (1½) for the hours worked on these days. When any of the holidays in Section 1 occur on Sunday, such holidays will be observed on the following Monday. When a holiday falls outside an employee's normally scheduled work week, the employee at his/her discretion will receive scheduled holiday pay or will be allowed to observe that holiday in the form of a Floating Holiday. Other provisions of Section 4, 5, and 6 shall apply in the usual manner for the day observed by the employee.

SECTION 3. All employees to whom this contract applies shall be paid for legal holidays at the regular rate of pay for such employees when no work is performed. The number of hours in the normal day will be allowed and such hours, if within the regularly scheduled work week, shall accumulate toward weekly overtime.

SECTION 4. An employee required to work on any legal holiday in his regularly scheduled work week shall be paid at one and one-half (1½) times his/her regular rate of pay for the hours worked on such holiday in addition to the pay allowance for such holiday. Any time worked beyond eight (8) hours on a holiday shall be paid at a rate of two and one-half (2½) times the employee's hourly rate.

SECTION 5. When an employee is called upon to work on any of the holidays covered in Article V, Section 1, when the same shall not fall within the employee's regularly scheduled work week, he/she shall be paid at two and one-half (2½) times his/her straight time rate of pay for the hours worked.

SECTION 6. When, because of an emergency call, an employee is required to work on a holiday, in addition to the employee's holiday pay, he/she shall receive as compensation a minimum of two (2) hours at two and one-half (2½) times his/her straight time rate.

SECTION 7. All employees to whom this contract applies will receive two (2) Floating Holidays each year.  Each Department will post vacation staffing requirements in January. The employee must give the Company a minimum of seven (7) days notice prior to the Floating Holiday, and the day must be mutually agreed upon.  The Company will respond before the close of business the next regular working day.  Provided an employee has given fourteen (14) days notice, a Floating Holiday can only be denied if previously scheduled vacation weeks and/or days have reduced staffing levels below previously established minimums.  All refusals of requests will include the reason for the refusal.  The Company will not be arbitrary or capricious in refusing, and any arbitrary refusals will be subject to the grievance procedure.  Upon refusal, the employee may resubmit an alternate date and reply will be given as provided above.  The Company will allow up to 25% of the unit to take one of their Floating Holidays on Martin Luther King Day.

SECTION 8. All employees to whom this contract applies will receive one day off either on the day of the birth of their child or the day they bring their spouse /child home from the hospital.