Regarding reports that Gannett is now reinforcing compliance with wage and hour laws, a reader says: "The New Jersey work week has been 37.5 [hours] for as long as I can recall. Jim, can you look into other Gannett newsrooms and whether they are at 37.5 or 40? Why aren't they all the same?"Good questions! Calling all readers: How long is your company's work week? Leave a note in the comments section, below. Or use this link to e-mail your reply; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.
Impact of N.J. buyouts
The newly announced cuts at Gannett's New Jersey papers will fall especially hard on exempt staff, the reader says. "The salaried managers get to add at least the equivalent of another workday to their hours each week to pick up the slack,'' the reader says. "Which is not to take away from the hourly folks, who will get reviewed poorly when they can't cover 100 towns for the flagship product while putting out 99 geo-sections while updating the web every 10 minutes while shooting and editing video while training to do podcasts."
Join the debate, in the original post.
This whole switch to the new punch-clock system has brought up some really peculiar scheduling dilemmas for our newsroom that still have yet to be ironed out.
ReplyDeleteI can only speak for my department:
-we have a 40 hour work week
-we're scheduled on a 9-hour shift 5 days a week
-we are expected to take a one-hour lunch...
But as a journalist how often do you really have time to take an hour lunch break *away from your desk* (which is what technically constitutes a lunch break).
Before this new payroll system, we were told (Ha! Not in writing, of course) that we had to claim a lunch on our time sheets whether we took it or not. Often we didn't take a lunch because we couldn't... we had shit to do... so we worked our 9-hour shifts as eight-hour shifts. We didn't have that much of a problem with it... there's usually a little down time throughout the day to break things up... and otherwise how else would the work get done? We'd often balance the extra time we put in, if possible, by leaving a little early the next day or coming in a little later.
Now we actually have to punch out for a lunch, or leave earlier than we used to so we can stay within our 8 hours a day.... or else we start getting into big-bad-overtime situations...
Seriously... it's f'ed up...
This system just doesn't work with journalists who are in and out of the office everyday without regularity to their schedules. But on the other hand, there is some comfort knowing that all of my hours are being recorded honestly. There are days I put in less than 8, but they are far outnumbered by the days I put in more.
Out here in the Midwest, I've always heard that 7.5 hour days were for big cities out east that had longer commutes. 40 hours is the norm here, not just in newspapering, but everywhere.
ReplyDeleteIn NJ, we work a 37.5 hour week. 7.5 hours a day plus a 1/2 hour unpaid lunch break. State law mandates a 15 minute break for every four hours worked. So I never could understand exactly how the NJ papers came up with this work schedule.
ReplyDeleteEvery other company I (and my peers) have worked at, is based on a 40 hour work week, with an hour-long paid lunch break.
Go figure.
At corporate, it's a 7.5 hour work day, plus an hour for lunch, of which only 30 minutes is "paid". In other words, our work day is 8:30AM to 5PM.
ReplyDeleteAs far as time tracking with the new Lawson system, everything is audited to a microscopic level. The new timeclocks protect both the company from "friends" checking someone in, as well as from managers changing the number of hours worked to meet targets.
At USAT we work 50-60 and are paid for 37.5...nice huh? You probably don't know about that Jim, working so far away from the ivory towers... ;)
ReplyDelete37.5 is a New York State thing, too, as far as I know. We are not paid for lunch, so it is an eight-hour day with a half an hour for lunch. Overtime kicks in after 37.5.
ReplyDeleteOvertime in New York state is time worked over 40 hours. I think you'll find that the 37.5 hour work week came from the union situations at your various newspapers.
ReplyDeleteAs for breaks, here is what New York state says: "Employees who work a shift of more than six hours starting before 11 A.M. and continuing until 2 P.M. must have an uninterrupted lunch period of at least half an hour between 11 A.M. and 2 P.M. Other "Breaks", such as for "rest periods" or "coffee breaks," are not required.
And: Under the New York State Labor Law, payment for holidays, sick time or vacation -- i.e. payment for time not actually worked - is not required unless the employer has established a policy to grant such pay. When an employer does decide to create a benefit policy, that employer is free to impose any conditions they choose.
Try this connection: http://www.labor.state.ny.us/workerprotection/laborstandards/faq.shtm#6
It's enlightening.
in indianapolis, there's a 40-hour week under the guild contract.
ReplyDeletebut federal law regarding breaks is that you get two 20-minute breaks within an 8-hour shift and if you eat lunch while at your desk or anywhere else where you MAY be required to take a phone call, answer a question, etc., that's WORK time.
you can get federal labor law info online, and federal labor law trumps company policy every time if you raise enough hell . . .
Republic workweek is 40 hours, 8 and a half hour days, with half-hour unpaid lunch break. Like comments above, who has time to break away for that lunch break?
ReplyDelete