Letters of Demand

Recently, carriers have received Letters of Demand due to some alleged error in payroll deductions pertaining to their health care plan. It is not clear how this happened, and no one knows for sure if it is correct. These letters were mailed to the carriers’ address of record, with no detailed explanation of the debt. According to Article 28 of the National Agreement this is a clear violation of our rights. Even if the debt is correct, the carrier retains the right to verify the accuracy of the claim and be given a detailed explanation of how the amount was derived. This requires management to sit the carrier down in the office and show him/her the evidence of where that debt came from. Unless you fully trust management bookkeeping, (how could anyone?) you should not pay the bill. We should make management fully explain where the debt comes from. This requires them to show you payroll logs, statements, and even a phone call to accounting services explaining how they came up with this amount. Management has really become very lazy with these letters over the past few years. Now instead of handing the bill to you in the office, they just mail it to your house now. We should not allow that. We arealways expected to follow every rule, or else. Why do they get a pass?

The citation can be found in Article 28 that states the following relevant part:

“In advance of any money demand upon an employee for any reason, the employee must be informed in writing, and the demand must include the reasons therefor.”

Pursuant to Article 28, of the National Agreement, Management is required to provide supplemental information in which the derivation of the amount demanded is made reasonably comprehensible and a mathematical computation is provided to verify the amount allegedly owed by the Grievant is correct. Management must explain the reason for the debt to the Grievant in a manner that he/she would understand.

Additionally, we are not bound by management’s demand that the debt be paid in full. We can work out a payment plan, and it can be less than the 15 percent language found in Article 8. The carrier should not suffer undue financial burden because of management’s mistake.