ARTICLE IV
Vacations
SECTION 1. All employees of the Company to whom this contract applies who shall have completed six (6) months of continuous service between April 1 and November 1 shall receive one (1) week vacation with pay.
SECTION 2. All employees of the Company to whom this contract applies who shall have completed one (1) year of continuous service between April 1 and November 1 shall receive two (2) weeks vacation with pay.
SECTION 3. All employees of the Company to whom this contract applies who shall have completed five (5) years of continuous service between April 1 and November 1 shall receive three (3) weeks vacation with pay.
SECTION 4. All employees of the Company to whom this contract applies who shall have completed ten (10) years of continuous service between April 1 and November 1, shall receive four (4) weeks vacation with pay.
SECTION 5. All employees of the Company to whom this contract applies who shall have completed twenty (20) years of continuous service between April 1 and November 1 shall receive five (5) weeks vacation with pay.
SECTION 6. The third (3rd), fourth (4th), and fifth (5th) weeks of vacation periods may or may not be consecutive to each other, or to the first two (2) weeks, depending upon the requirements of the Company.
SECTION 7. No vacation payment shall be made to any employee who terminates employment for any reason other than death or retirement prior to April 1 of the vacation year.
SECTION 8. Employees entitled to vacation will receive straight time pay. Collectors on an hourly and bonus basis will be paid, exclusive of overtime earnings, the average weekly earnings of the four (4) week marking period in the month of June as a vacation allowance.
SECTION 9. The Company shall endeavor to provide vacations at the time selected by the employee. All requests for vacation time must be made by February 1 and the Company will grant vacation time and post the vacation schedule prior to March 1. Any subsequent vacation requests/changes will be filled by seniority on a first come first served basis. A prime week is any week in which minimum Departmental staffing requirements have been reached. Employees granted prime weeks may only reschedule by mutual agreement of the Company and the Union. In no event will vacations be extended beyond the calendar year in which the employee becomes qualified, except in cases where an employee on a Worker’s Compensation injury/illness at the end of the year has a balance of unused vacation time. In this case, the unused vacation time will be carried over to the following year or paid as a lump sum at the Company’s discretion.
Any vacation time used between January 1st and March 1st will be selected on a first come – first served basis. Seniority will prevail whenever two or more employees apply on the same day for a particular week or day(s) and such time will not be considered priority weeks or days.
Seniority will prevail in the assignment of vacation time. Vacation time will be selected first by priority 1st and 2nd weeks; then by 3rd, 4th, and 5th weeks, then by prescheduled individual days, including floating holidays. Any “changed” days will then be selected on a first come – first served basis. Seniority will prevail whenever two or more employees apply on the same day for a particular day or days.
During the initial selection process, employees with four (4) or more weeks vacation can use their seniority to select their fourth (4th) and fifth (5th) vacation weeks and can bump an employees' selection of a third (3rd) week.
All employees will be allowed to take one (1) week of their vacation in days (except that in Customer Service days will be scheduled between April 1 to August 31, with management discretion outside that period), if their selection of days does not force another employee to move their weeks vacation. The days selected will take place after all employees who have submitted their vacation requests prior to February 1 have selected their full weeks vacation.
The Company recognizes that employees may request emergency vacation time and agrees not to be arbitrary or capricious in denying such requests.
SECTION 10. Employees whose vacations are scheduled for one (1) of the weeks in which a paid holiday occurs in the regularly scheduled work week, will be given another day off with pay in the calendar year, or a day may be added to the vacation schedule, if mutually agreed upon.
SECTION 11. In the event an employee is confined because of sickness or injury during this vacation period, such period of confinement shall revert to sick time and his/her vacation shall be allowed after his/her return to work. If such employee is confined because he/she was engaged in the employ of another employer, then the provision of this section will not apply.