How Lionbridge cut 4+ hours of the PTO they said would provide for 2015

When Lionbridge HR Senior Director Susan Gillespie emailed Tier1 employees (see below) about Lionbridge's implementation of Microsoft's Paid Time Off requirement she wrote that people would get 13.85 hours of PTO. That's 4.61 hours less than what Lionbridge had offered in the Memorandum Of Understanding they had signed on October 23, that refers to 18.46 hours of PTO.  Should this reduction be interpreted as a retaliation against the employees who voted against the ratification of the tentative collective agreement? It certainly looks like it. Not a very auspicious start.


From: Gillespie, Susan 
Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2015 10:59 AM

Good Morning,

I am writing to provide you with an update on the status of our collective bargaining with the Tier 1 union (TWA). Last week a vote was held to ratify the tentative agreement that your representatives negotiated and agreed to on your behalf. We have been informed that agreement was not ratified.  Your TWA representative can inform you of TWA’s next steps.

As you know, Microsoft has asked its suppliers, including Lionbridge, to provide paid time off (PTO) to its employees.   Under the terms of the proposed agreement with TWA, we were prepared to extend PTO to the Tier 1 employees.  Although the proposed contract was rejected by TWA membership, Lionbridge would like to proceed in the implementation of PTO even though there is no collective bargaining agreement with TWA.  We informed TWA of our desire to do this, and TWA had no objection. 

Therefore, we are going to provide 15 days of PTO to all Tier 1 employees who have worked at least 1500 hours effective November 20^th.  We are going to front load the hours that you will accrue during 2015. Therefore on your 11/27/15 payroll you will see 13.85 hours of accrued PTO. You can choose to use this time for company holidays or any other days you have been approved to be away. Starting in 2016 you will begin accruing 4.62 hours per pay period.

If you have any questions, please let me know.