Opinion ID: 48714
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Bale

Text: Bale joined Continental as a flight attendant in July 1987. In 1997, he discovered that his vacation seniority date was less advantageous than his records indicated it should have been. 2 Company-offered leave is optional leave offered by Continental to its flight attendants. It is offered to those attendants with higher seniority in lieu of leave being forced on junior flight attendants (i.e., furlough status), thereby alleviating the effect of overstaffing and base closings. This is advantageous to Continental, because its payroll expense is reduced by having lower paid flight attendants on duty, as Continental does not have to pay its senior flight attendants who are on company-offered leave and does not have to pay furlough pay to junior flight attendants who would otherwise be on furlough status. 4 Bale periodically inquired into the discrepancy between 1998 and 2000. He was eventually informed that his vacation seniority date had been adjusted for company-offered leaves that he had taken between 1991 and 1995. In August 2000, Bale filed a grievance, complaining of unfair and unequal adjustment of seniority. In June 2001, Bale filed a second grievance, complaining that Continental violated the CBA by including managerial employees at the level of director or above in the System Seniority List. Both of these grievances were denied following a step-one and a step-two hearing.