Week without pay for LANG staff *

All,

Sorry to report that due to the tough times we're in, the company is requiring that everyone take a week of unpaid leave between Feb. 1 through the end of March - management included. You've all been working hard under increasingly stretched resources, but I know you're aware of the revenue bind - and hopefully this can save a job or two or three down the line or at least delay some cuts. I'm forwarding you a note from Carolina which includes a letter from the publisher, Ed Moss, a Q&A on how it works and some guidelines. Essentially, exempt employees must take a full week off in five consecutive days, and non-exempt employees can pick and chose their five days. It's going to be a little tough scheduling all this, so please send Harrison your requests ASAP. Thanks in advance for your cooperation and understanding.

john

All,

Attached is information regarding a furlough at the Daily News. Please distribute to your staff, and Theresa will post the material as well. Please read the material carefully, and Pat Douglass is available to questions. She can be reached at ext. 3448.

Carolina Garcia
Executive Editor

Furlough Program Guidelines

February – March 2009

Effective immediately, our Company is implementing a furlough program, which will require all participating employees to take off five days of work without pay. The following guidelines should be helpful:

1. Hourly (Non-Exempt) Employees: They will be able to take the days off (unpaid) one at a time or all at once depending on scheduling.
2. Outside Sales Employees: They will be able to take the days off (unpaid) one at a time.
3. Salaried (Exempt) Employees: They will be required to take an entire workweek off without pay.
4. In all cases, each employee will be required to identify a backup person to take care of their duties and responsibilities during the time that they are off. An employee’s must first discuss this with his/her supervisor or the individual to whom he/she reports.
5. Office staffers must leave an outgoing message on voicemail that he/she is out and whom the caller should contact if the need help or assistance before you return to work. The same is true for email.
6. During the furlough period, each employee, whether salaried or hourly may not perform any work for the Company whatsoever. This refers to e-mail, voicemail or any other type of work that is associated directly with your position. For the salaried exempt employees, this also means that no work to be performed over any otherwise off-days, such as weekends for many.
7. Each furlough, whether daily or week long, must be scheduled and coordinated with an employee’s respective supervisor.
8. During the furlough, an employee’s group benefits (including all health benefits) will continue and deductions will be taken from his/her paycheck as usual.’
9. Employees will continue to earn vacation and sick leave credits during the week/or days of the furlough.
10. Holidays occurring during a furlough will be unpaid.

Alternative for Salaried (Exempt) Employees

In the event that any salaried employee is not interested in taking a furlough, they may elect to have their predetermined salary reduced by 12.5% for an indefinite period of time. As everyone should know, salaries are always subject to fluctuation as determined by the company. However this is no guarantee that a person’s salary will necessarily go up or go down in the future.

The Company strongly discourages its Salaried Employees from opting for this alternative. However, any exempt supervisory employee wishing to consider this alternative should discuss it with both their respective supervisor and their Human Resources representative.