How to Enforce Your 9.5 Rights
Step one is to document a work week in which you worked three days over 9.5 hours. The 9.5 Rights Documentation Form has a table where you can easily document the simple but critical details: dates
worked, start time, unpaid breaks, end time, and total hours worked.
Once you have documented this information, you have to tell your Center Manager that you want to be on the 9.5 list. Make sure to bring your steward.
Meeting with Management
Use the Enforcement Form to document what happens in your meeting with your Center Manager.
If you worked more than 9.5 hours on three days in one work week, then you qualify for the 9.5 list. (There are exceptions for cover drivers.)
Your Center Manager should add you to the 9.5 Opt-In list for a five month period, excluding November and December.
If the Center Manager denies your right to get on the Opt-In list, document that fact and their reasons why on the 9.5 Rights Documentation Form.
Then file a grievance saying that the company violated Article 37 by failing to add you to the Opt-In list after you had worked more than 9.5 hours on three days in one work week.
If the Center Manager tries to put you off, then put your request in writing and hand it in.
If the Center Manager makes any threats that you will be over-supervised, given extra performance rides, or be targeted with telematics, document that, too. Use the extra space on the back of the form as needed.
The more documentation you have—and the more drivers in your center that are getting on the 9.5 Opt-In list—the more protection you have.
Filing a 9.5 Grievance
Once you are on the 9.5 list, you should use the 9.5 Violation Form to document every time you work more than 9.5 hours three times in a work week. Again, you will need the simple but critical details: dates worked, start time, end time, unpaid breaks and total hours worked.
Armed with your evidence, go with your steward to speak with the Center Manager to request that the company comply with Article 37 of the contract, which calls for the company to adjust the driver’s work
schedule and pay triple time pay for hours worked over 9.5 hours in a day.
If the company agrees to resolve the problem, note the settlement on the 9.5 Rights Documentation Form.
Depending on the situation, an appropriate settlement calls for adjusting your load, triple time pay for hours worked over 9.5 hours in a day, or agreement to pay the triple time penalty on the next violation.
If the company doesn’t resolve the problem, talk to your steward and file a grievance.
