U Management At It Again

crazyincanton

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Jan 10, 2003
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Dear Members,

It has recently come to the attention of AFA that there is a violation in
our contract by the Company with regard to the VFLR Program.

Sometime ago, the Company had hired a third party vendor to contest
unemployment for those flight attendants who are terminated for gross
misconduct as well as the flight attendant reserves who attempted to claim
or did claim unemployment benefits when the LTO was implemented in November
2003.

Evidently, this third Party Vendor named Unemployment Tax Control
Associates (UTCA)has been also involved in filling out forms on behalf of
the company documenting that the flight attendants who are awarded the VFLR
have Voluntarily quit or separated, or writing in sections of the
Unemployment compensation benefit form that clearly is for "protest only"
to deny benefits to the claimant.

There were reports in all states that some flight attendants who were
awarded the VFLR in June had been denied unemployment, initially, or were
challenged. What we discovered is that the Third party vendor (UTCA) was
responding to the Unemployment Compensation Administration Notice of
Entitlement Forms and filling out a section that was clearly stated for
"protesting of claimant's benefit". Your MEC was compelled to get involved
and explain the Program to the Adjudicators in these respective states and
was successful in expressing to them that the VFLR was not a voluntary quit
but a furlough done in
seniority order with "recall rights" and that the f/as were maintained on
the seniority
list until such recall.

However in New York, we were not successful. There has been only 1 flight
attendant that took the June VFLR and was denied that we are aware of. The
LEC President
from LGA, Rob Wessinger, and myself attended the hearing in Manhattan and
were unsuccessful in overturning the denial with the hearing judge. Reason
is that the Third Party Vendor had filled out Section II Employer Response
Form which is ONLY to be filled out if the employer is contesting
unemployment and protesting the claimants eligibility. WE have this proof in
hard copy.

This gave rise to the denial.

AFA is compelled to inform all flight attendants that there is a
possibility, at this point, that any flight attendant can be denied
unemployment, specifically New York but not just New York State. We are
presently grieving this contestment of unemployment for the flight attendant
who was denied in New York and seeking for the Company to make her whole
for violating our contract.

The MEC is informing those flight attendants in advance of the closing of
the VFLR II which is August 26 that you may need to consider this
possibility when applying.

For those flight attendants who have already applied and have been awarded
and are scheduled to leave, we are seeking a remedy from the company through
an MEC grievance, as well, if you are denied unemployment due to the
responses from the Company's third party vendor, UTCA.

If you are denied unemployment benefits, appeal it, and investigate the
reason. Make sure you get copies of your denial and the company's response
in the initial filing report so that we may add this documentation to the
grievance. Hopefully, you won't be denied and it won't be a problem in PA.


Even though we are down to the wire, and that many f/as won't see this
E-line in time, AFA takes the position that the company is still responsible
for any denials due to contesting unemployment. Anyone denied will be
included in this grievance. Hopefully, the Company will have remedied this
problem with UTCA before there are more f/as who file for benefits After
September 1. I will send out to you a Q&A for PA claimants that will help
you to fill out the forms electronically or by phone as I did in June. This
proved to help many of the f/as answer the questions consistently.

Teddy
Local 40