Are You Working Today?

Today is a holiday for members in the U.S.

Working today? Here’s what you’re owed:

Fellow IAPE member, are you working today?

This year, for the first time, the Day After Thanksgiving is a holiday for Dow Jones employees working in the United States. Even though IAPE and Dow Jones are still negotiating new contract provisions, the company has agreed to treat today as a contract holiday.

That means any IAPE-represented employee in the U.S. who is working today is entitled to Holiday Pay for all time spent working. That’s 1.5X your pay for your regular hours, 2X your pay if you are required to work additional hours AND an extra day’s pay—or a day in lieu of the holiday to use before the end of this year.

This is important: for today—and any contract holiday which falls after July 3 in any year—the choice between the extra day’s pay or the extra day off is yours.

No, your manager does not have the right to tell you to “take Monday off instead.” You get to choose whether to take pay or use the day—and if you want to use the day, you get to request the date you’d like to take off.

(Note: management still has the discretion to reject time off requests if days are unavailable, so the extra cash might be preferable. Like vacation time, days in lieu of holidays expire for most members at the end of the calendar year, which is why we negotiated the employee option to choose pay in the first place.)

Same Holiday Pay rules apply if you worked on Thanksgiving day, or if you are already assigned coverage on Christmas Day. For members in Canada, Holiday Pay benefits kick in on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

So, if you’re working today, file all your hours worked in Workday. Then let your manager know whether you want your extra day or your day’s pay.

It’s your choice.

Happy Holidays!