Finning finally pays out!
Wednesday December 5, 2007
For Immediate Release
Edmonton, AB – Members of IAMAW Local Lodge 99 employed by Finning International, are finally getting their vacation adjustment checks and just in time for Christmas.
In late October 2007, more than 1,000 members received vacation pay adjustments totalling $1.9 million from Finning, to correct vacation pay miscalculations discovered by the union. “This began in the summer of 2005 when we discovered the members weren’t getting all of the vacation pay they were entitled to,” explained IAMAW Local Lodge 99 Directing Business Representative Bob MacKinnon. “We filed a grievance because this was clearly a violation of our collective agreement.” Local Lodge 99 won that grievance and in December 2005, Finning agreed to pay out $2.1 million to correct the problem.
“But once the adjustment checks began to reach the members, we discovered there was still a problem,” said MacKinnon. “There were great differences in the amounts paid out to members. People who worked the same amount of overtime and had the same number of years of service were often thousands of dollars apart in compensation.” The more we looked into it, the worse it became,” explained an exasperated MacKinnon. “Further examination by LL 99 revealed some of these vacation pay discrepancies went back as far as 1998.” Finning agreed to make adjustments to its accounting practices and in December 2006 it made a further payment of $1.8 million to affected members.
“The company hired new payroll personnel in 2007 and they underwent a lengthy training curve before all of the bugs were eventually worked out and the final checks were issued last month,” added MacKinnon. “We’re pleased that Finning has adopted our suggestion to issue every member with their own vacation time spread sheet so this won’t be an issue in the future.”
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For further information:
Bob MacKinnon – Directing Business Representative IAMAW Local Lodge 99
780-483-4103/780-991-7796
Bill Trbovich – IAMAW Director of Communications
416-386-1789 ext 31/416-735-9765
