ADVERTISING ISSUES

Revenue Goals and Commission Structure

Under the current contract, PN sets sales goals for the commission sales reps, puts employees on probation if they don’t reach the goals and fires them after two consecutive probations.

The Union wanted to improve job security for these sales reps.

Under the proposed agreement, PN will set the sales goals for both commissioned and salaried sales reps, but there will be new safeguards against termination if the rep does not make the goals. For instance, the goals must be reasonable and received prior to the first day of each period. Employees will be provided the specific action steps they must follow.  

The Company also insisted that it needed to eliminate the minimum commission levels contained in the previous agreement. The tentative agreement eliminates the minimum commission, but provides the commission sales employees with a $2,500 minimum monthly draw against commissions. The company wanted that to be an unforgivable draw. The Guild insisted it be a forgivable draw that will be paid in weekly installments.

In the future, PN will provide 45 days advance notice of any territory modification, in order to give the employee a reasonable period of time prior to the change to talk to management.

The proposed agreement also allows PN employees to sell advertising into affiliated publications or enterprises under “cross sell” arrangements. Non-employees working for affiliated publications will be allowed to sell ads into any PN product. In both cases, those sales will count toward the PN employee’s goals, and incentives and/or commissions will be paid.   

The Guild agreed to a management proposal that when inbound voluntary advertising representatives make outbound sales calls to extend classified advertisements initially placed through the voluntary department, they would be paid at the voluntary rate but  receive commissions or bonuses for those sales. 

PN also insisted that new hires for advertising outside sales positions can be required to sign non-competition agreements.

Overtime

PN’s original proposal would have allowed anyone who is not covered by the minimum wage laws to be excluded from contractual overtime positions. That proposal would have allowed them to avoid paying overtime to anyone currently not covered by the law, as well as anyone who might lose overtime coverage of the law in the future.

The agreement we reached acknowledges that only outside advertising department sales representatives are exempt from the minimum wage laws and will no longer have contractual overtime protection. However, when they are required to work beyond their normal hours, management will be required to attempt to accommodate requests for schedule flexibility.  All other advertising classifications will still receive overtime.

Management Positions

The advertising department has an ongoing problem with PN creating new positions, declaring the job as management, and excluding it from the Union. The Guild has filed grievances challenging this practice and an arbitration is pending. The parties also have  committed to reviewing those positions under the new standards to try to avert the arbitration.

In bargaining, the employer originally proposed that it should be allowed to create new management positions, reclassify existing positions as management and strip the incumbent of Guild coverage. That was entirely unacceptable to the Guild.

The agreement we reached for advertising is that the employer will not reclassify as management anyone currently covered by the contract. When PN wants to create new management positions, it will have to give the Union advance notice and a job description that shows the position is legitimately a management position under the National Labor Relations Act. Any dispute over how the position should be classified will be subject to the contract’s grievance and arbitration provisions.

Seniority for Layoffs

The tentative agreement calls for commission sales people to be grouped with salaried classified advertising salespersons and display advertising salespersons in the event of lay offs.