
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, November 9, 1995                   TAG: 9511090052
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FIRST UNION TO TRIM ITS SHIFT DIFFERENTIAL

First Union Corp. plans to change its policy for paying a shift differential for night and weekend work in its Card Products Division, a move that is tantamount to a wage cut for employees who work those hours.

An employee at the Roanoke bank card customer service center on Plantation Road, who would not have spoken if the name were used, said the change affects 160 people in Roanoke and other employees at five other First Union centers outside Virginia. The employee expects to lose $2,000 a year in income.

Fred Winkler, senior vice president in the company's Card Products Division at First Union's Charlotte, N.C., headquarters, said Wednesday that the policy change is still under review. He said it does not affect basic salaries, only differential pay.

But a memo already distributed to the employees from Mike Sears, manager of the Roanoke center, said the corporate policy will take effect Jan. 1. He said the card products center will put in its own shift differential policy if the company fails to act systemwide by then.

"The policy change is a result of a compensation market analysis finding," Sears wrote in the memo. "The study shows that First Union's shift differential policy is compensating at a higher rate than the market demands. To be a world-class provider of customer service, we must remain competitive in all areas, including compensation."

Winkler said the pay differential was causing dissension inside the work group. He said employees sometimes signed up for night or weekend work, then called in sick. They still expected the differential pay, he said, upsetting those who had actually worked the night and weekend shift.

The changes, Winkler said, will ensure that all employees are treated equally and fairly.

Winkler said the company would be willing to "grandfather" into the old system any employees who were adversely affected.

But the employee said that a personal service representative in Roanoke was "given a stern warning" after circulating a petition calling for a new study with employee input. Nearly 100 people had signed the petition before it was stopped.

The employee gave this explanation:

The center operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Work hours are bid by seniority, so those with lesser seniority are locked into night and weekend work answering calls.

Working one weekend day earns a 12 percent differential. Starting Jan.1, the maximum shift differential will be 10 percent.

In a second change proposed for Jan.1, the 10 percent differential can be earned by either working both Saturday and Sunday together or by working half of one's hours after 5 p.m. - in effect, to 9 p.m.

The shift differential now is paid for working either Saturday or Sunday. Most working shifts are from Sunday through Thursday or from Tuesday through Saturday. People working those shifts no longer will get the weekend differential.

Those assigned to work Saturday and Sunday, the employee said, will miss out on the differential if they get sick one of those days.

by CNB