FYIAPE: New Disciplinary Meeting Procedures

In addition to pay raises, the recent contract agreement between IAPE and Dow Jones produced changes to several sections of contract language. Included among those are new procedures when an IAPE-represented employee is summoned to an investigatory or disciplinary meeting.

Under the former contract, management was generally required to provide an IAPE-represented employee with three hours’ advance notice of a meeting, and needed to advise the employee of their right to request union representation.

The new agreement reduces that advance notice to two hours—or a single hour if management confirms the availability of an IAPE representative beforehand—and the company now has an obligation to provide simultaneous notice to both the employee and IAPE.

This new requirement applies to investigatory and disciplinary meetings. The new contract will also confirm that meetings where employees are terminated qualify as disciplinary.

These new procedures were supposed to take effect upon ratification of the new agreement, though a handful of members were summoned to meetings last week without the required notice provided to IAPE. But hey, mistakes occasionally happen. It is understandable that it might take time for Dow Jones managers to become fully aware of all new contract terms.

Similarly, it is understandable that an employee might believe a manager has their best interests at heart, and isn’t compiling a memo of trumped up performance complaints to lay the groundwork for a bogus dismissal.

We digress.

Even with the presence of this new contract language, if you receive an invitation to an investigatory or disciplinary meeting, the union strongly recommends that you reach out for assistance. If you don’t hear from us first, contact IAPE at union@iape1096.org.

Warnings, Rights and the PIPs
An uptick in disciplinary meetings at Dow Jones—union representatives are on pace to represent twice as many members during meetings with management and HR in 2024 as they did in 2023—has prompted IAPE to rethink how the union addresses performance warnings, progressive discipline, and performance expectations from management, sometimes referred to a “performance improvement plans” or “PIPs.”

For starters, IAPE is currently pursuing five active grievances challenging performance warnings issued to members and is considering several more.

A grievance, however, is only a partial solution, and the grievance process can take a very long time to play out. What should a member who receives a performance warning do to protect themselves in the meantime?

IAPE Vice President and Grievance Committee Chair Tricia Corley and IAPE Secretary Tim Merle—along with input from the IAPE Board of Directors—have prepared this Member FAQ as a handy guide to performance warnings and investigations at Dow Jones.

Covering everything from what to do to who to trust, this guide addresses questions many members ask, and some that they should. If you don’t have time to give it a read today, you’ll be able to find it again linked under the Resources tab on the IAPE website.