INDIANA HARBOR BELT RAILROAD COMPANY

CIRCULAR NOTICE NO. 68

TO: ALL CONCERNED NOVEMBER 1, 2008

T&E VACATION BIDDING 2008

On November 1, 2008 menu item 17 will become active in your crew call menu and be available to bid your 2009 vacations. Bid all weeks entitled to.

Bidding for vacations for 2009 starts November 1, 2008 and finishes on December 1, 2008. In order to bid your vacation for 2009, select item 17 on the crew call menu and make your vacation selections. This can be done at any crew call computer or via your home computer if you have access to crew call. You can make changes to your bid anytime you want up to December 1, 2008, when the computer will finalize your current bid.

In bidding remember the following:

If you are entitled to take vacation in days the maximum number of weeks allowed is indicated on the bid sheet. Claim the number of weeks in days wanted up to the maximum allowed. This should be done on each bid sheet. Vacation days are not assigned. For example: you are allowed 5 weeks of vacation and can take 3 weeks in days and you want 1 week in days. You would put claim 1 on all bid sheets for 1 week in days. You would only need a maximum of 4 bid sheets filled in since you would only have 4 weeks of vacation to assign. The computer would never get to sheet 5. Failure to indicate days on all sheets may result in your not getting single day vacation!

The easiest way to bid your vacation is to make your bid in the following manner. On first screen bid for your first week of vacation indicating in order of preference the week that you want for first week. When you have bid all of your preferences for this week press <PF5> to update bid and then press <PF12> to bring up another bid sheet to bid for your next week of vacation. Bid in preference order for this week of vacation press <PF5> to update bid and then press <PF12> to bring up next screen to bid next week of vacation due. Repeat until you have bid all weeks of vacation entitled to minus any weeks in single days claimed.

The computer will take each vacation bid in order and start with 1st choice and look down choices for the first match of your preference and what is open and will award that selection to you. If there is no week open for your choices or there are no bids the computer stops until Crew Management and Local Chairman select a week or weeks to give you if you have bid multiple weeks on the bid sheet. The computer will then go to the next vacation bid sheet and start with 1st choice and look down until it can award you the first choice that is open or stop if there are no available choices on your bid sheet. You are then forced to an open week and the process resumes. The process is repeated until all of your vacation is totally awarded and then the next senior person’s bid is evaluated. It is important to make many choices to avoid being force assigned due to insufficient choices.

It is possible to bid consecutive weeks of vacation on one bid sheet. You would indicate week and duration of how many consecutive weeks wanted. For example if you wanted two weeks together in July you would bid in the following manner. 1^st choice week 26 duration 2; 2^nd choice week 27 duration 2; 3^rd choice week 28 duration 2; 4^th choice week 29 duration 2; and 5^th choice week 30 duration 2. In order to be awarded any of these picks both weeks must be available. If during the above period the maximum had been reached for all weeks but week 26 you would get forced assigned to two open weeks together. This is something to consider when making multiple week selections on one bid sheet. Make sufficient choices.

Once vacations have been awarded, should you wish to change your vacation, do so through menu option 14 Future Layoff Request. Your vacation will be reviewed and changed providing seniority and allocations permit.

D.D. Kelley, Transportation Superintendent

BIDDING T & E VACATION ASSIGNMENTS FOR 2008

Item 17 on the main crew call screen is active starting on November 1, 2008 for bidding for your 2009 vacation. You may bid your vacation at any crew call computer terminal or from your home computer via ERC. You can make changes to your bid any time up to December 1, 2008 when the bid system will shut down, the current bid will be finalized and you will no longer have access to menu item 17. If you make insufficient choices you may be assigned to an open week. If you do not submit a bid, one will be made for you in accordance with the agreement (you go behind those that bid and will get what is left).

During the bulletin open period, a menu option “17 (VACATION BID MAINTENANCE)” is active.

The screen appears as below:

Employee Menu Screen

INDIANA HARBOR BELT RAILROAD PSTS02

DISTRICT: IH BR

001 ENGINE SERVICE 010 HOURS OF SERVICE SELECTION

011 PENDING PAY INQUIRY

003 TRAIN SERVICE 012 PAYROLL HISTORY INQUIRY

004 SUPERVISOR INQUIRIES 013 PAYROLL SERVICE CORRECTIONS

005 TIE‑UP 014 FUTURE LAYOFF REQUEST

006 REVISED TIE‑UP 015 PERMANENT BID EXECUTION

007 MISCELLANEOUS CLAIM 016 NEW EMPLOYEE VACATION

008 ADDRESS/PHONE NO. CHANGES 017 VACATION BID MAINTENANCE

009 TIMESLIP INQUIRY 018 ADVERTISEMENTS BY ADV ID

019 ADVERTISEMENTS BY ASSIGNMENT

SELECTION: ( 017 )

ENTER=PROCESS SELECTION PF1=HELP PF3=EXIT

Selecting option 17 will display to the employee the bid screen so that it can be used. The vacation weeks for IHB will start on Monday. (For Gibson Trainmen with rest days, if you choose for example, week of 9-14-09, and your rest days are Thursday and Friday, your vacation will start on Saturday, 9-19-09.)

Employee Vacation Maintenance Screen

10/15/00 EMPLOYEE VACATION BID MAINTENANCE PSTS70L

FOR VACATION YEAR: 09

EMPLOYEE NAME: ( Flanley JW EMPLOYEE NO: 152XX9700

DIST/SDIST : CR NJ ADVERTISE ID : VAC BID CLOSE DATE 11/15/01

VAC LIST : CRNJTROI VAC QUAL DATE: 03/25/74 WK BEGS ON: MON OR CLDR DAYS: N

WEEKS DUE: 5 ACT DAYS: 35 MAX WEEKS: 5 WEEKS BY DAYS: 3 CLAIM: ( 0 )

‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑ >>>> SPLIT 01 <<<< ‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑

WEEK DUR FRC WEEK DUR FRC WEEK DUR FRC WEEK DUR FRC WEEK DUR FRC WEEK DUR FR

1 44 3 2 44 2 3 44 1 4 48 3 5 48 2 6 48 1

7 21 1 8 9 10 11 12

COMMENTS

‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑ >>>> VACATION WEEKS <<<< ‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑

01‑ 01/07 08‑ 02/25 15‑ 04/15 22‑ 06/03 29‑ 07/22 36‑ 09/09 43‑ 10/28 50‑ 12/16

02‑ 01/14 09‑ 03/04 16‑ 04/22 23‑ 06/10 30‑ 07/29 37‑ 09/16 44‑ 11/04 51‑ 12/23

03‑ 01/21 10‑ 03/11 17‑ 04/29 24‑ 06/17 31‑ 08/05 38‑ 09/23 45‑ 11/11 52‑ 12/30

04‑ 01/28 11‑ 03/18 18‑ 05/06 25‑ 06/24 32‑ 08/12 39‑ 09/30 46‑ 11/18 53

05‑ 02/04 12‑ 03/25 19‑ 05/13 26‑ 07/01 33‑ 08/19 40‑ 10/07 47‑ 11/25 54

06‑ 02/11 13‑ 04/01 20‑ 05/20 27‑ 07/08 34‑ 08/26 41‑ 10/14 48‑ 12/02 55

07‑ 02/18 14‑ 04/08 21‑ 05/27 28‑ 07/15 35‑ 09/02 42‑ 10/21 49‑ 12/09 56

LAST UPDATE: BY:

ENTER=INQ F1=HELP F3=EXIT F5=UPDATE F7=SCR UP F8=SCR DOWN F12=NEXT SPLIT

Note that you have two blanks to fill in for each choice. The first is the week number that you want to start your vacation on and the second is the number of weeks you want associated with this choice. If you need to make more than 12 choices push PF12 key for additional choices.

Each screen represents one or more weeks of vacation bid. It is important to remember each sheet represents one or more weeks of vacation bid. Multiple weeks can be bid on the sheet if you want two or more weeks together, but see information below. The WEEK by Days indicates the maximum weeks you may use as single days. The number claimed should be the same on all bid sheets that you make out and week in days are not used to calculate the number of employees authorized on vacation. The single day weeks are allocated separately from whole week vacation.

The computer evaluation of vacations is done in seniority order. The computer takes the first sheet (first bid screen) and 1^st choice and sees if this choice is available. If you bid with more than one week as the selection it evaluates to see if all weeks are available and if unable to award all weeks on this choice the computer goes to next choice on this bid sheet. YOU CAN NOT BE PARTIALLY AWARDED IT IS ALL OF THE SELECTION OR IT GOES TO NEXT SELECTION. When the computer reaches an award that sheet is done and the computer goes to evaluate your next bid sheet. This sheet is evaluated just like the first sheet. If there can be no award made on a bid sheet the computer stops until Crew Management and Labor representatives make a selection for you to an open week. This is usually an open week at the end or beginning of year and the evaluation process then continues with next bid sheet. The computer goes through the evaluation process above until your vacation has been scheduled. The computer then evaluates the next person in seniority order.

For example in the above screen the employee has 5 weeks vacation due and that the first choice shows starting with week 44 and the next two weeks. The second choice is for week 44 and the next week 45 and if that is not awarded then he wants week 44 by itself. What this will do is that if week 45 is filled the first two choices will not be used and the person awarded his third choice for one week if week 44 is available. If the next bid sheet only has bids for one week because he felt that he would get either 3 weeks or two weeks on the first bid sheet he would be short one or two weeks and be forced to an open week. This bid while it is appropriate it can lead to being forced to weeks you do not want or result in insufficient bids. A better straggly would be to put your choices for the first week in the order you would want your vacation to start and then go to a second bid sheet and start your 1^st choice bid for additional week one week later and a third sheet if you wanted three weeks together. It is better not to mix amount of weeks on the bid sheet as the example screen shows because you may under bid your vacation. At the employee maintenance screen you can push the f12 key which will bring up another split screen to make additional bids on. If you wish to take a single day vacation indicate the number of weeks you want to use in the CLAIM field on all bid sheets along with any other comments you want to convey.

ONCE VACATIONS HAVE BEEN AWARDED, SHOULD YOU WISH TO CHANGE VACATION, DO SO THROUGH MENU 14 FUTURE LAYOFF REQUEST. YOUR REQUEST WILL BE REVIEWED AND CHANGED PROVIDING SENIORITY AND ALLOCATIONS PERMIT.

FIELDS

VACATION YEAR: The vacation year that an employee is allowed to bid. Computer Generated

EMPLOYEE NAME/EMPLOYEE NO: Displayed based upon the field user's signon. Computer Generated

DIS SUB DIST: The district/sub‑district that the employee is currently assigned. Computer Generated

ADVERTISE ID: The advertisement id for the vacation list. Computer Generated

CLOSE DATE: The designated close date for the vacation advertisement. Employees are allowed to bid or make changes to their bid up to the close date. Computer Generated

VAC LIST: The designated vacation list that the employee has been assigned to. Computer Generated

VAC QUAI, DATE: The qualifying date for entitlement of vacation weeks that an employee may bid. This field is populated by the Vacation Qual Date in the employee's payroll record. Computer Generated

VAC YR START/END: The start and end dates for the given vacation year as set up in the vacation profile. Computer Generated

VAC WEEKS DUE: The total number of weeks that have been assigned to the employee based on the employee's vacation qualification date and the vacation eligibility control records. Computer Generated

ACT DAYS: The total number of days that an employee is entitled to based upon the vacation roster assignment process. Computer Generated

MAX SPLITS: The total number of splits allowable as designated by the vacation eligibility control records. Computer Generated

WEEKS BY DAYS: The total number of vacation weeks allowed to be used as single day vacations as designated by the vacation eligibility control records. Computer Generated

CLAIM: An employee may designate how many weeks to be used as single day vacation. The default is zero if no entry is made and must be changed if want to have single day vacations. Employee Generated

SPLIT (Vacation bid sheet choice). The number of splits allowed is designated by the vacation eligibility control records with a maximum of 52 choices per split. Once the choices for the current split have been selected, the Next Split function (PF12) will display the next split option.

CH Designates the vacation bid choices, and is a display only field. Only the first 36 choices will initially be displayed. Using the Scroll Down function (PF8), additional choices for this split may be displayed or entered. This is the week to start for choice. Employee Generated

WKS The employee will enter the desired vacation duration in weeks. Employee Generated

FRC If a user other that the employee changes a choice in the split, the force (FRC) flag on the choice will automatically be set to F for forced bid. Display only.

COMMENTS Allows the employee to generate a message to the responsible authority concerning the vacation bidding process. A different comment may be entered for every split.

PF KEYS

F7 or F8 SCR UP/DOWN Scrolls choices allowable to the split desired.

F5 Update the screen must push for choices to be accepted by computer

F12 NEXT SPLIT Scrolls the employee the next bid screen.

WEEK BEGINS ON Monday.

VACATION WEEKS lists all weeks by the week number.

This example is from the most senior employee on a vacation roster who has 5 weeks vacation. It is improper since the computer will go to 1^st vacation screen and 1^st pick which is week 51 for 1 week. Because he is senior he is given week 51 and the computer is done with first vacation period. The computer will then go to Vacation 02. This is the next screen and because he made no choices he will not be awarded any additional weeks until he is forced at end of awarding period. All he needed to do is on Vacation screen 2 is put 47 for 1 week go to vacation 3 and put 35 for 1^st choice and then go to vacation 4 put 37 for 1 week and then go to vacation 5 and put 38 in choice 1. He will then be awarded properly.

10/16/08 EMPLOYEE VACATION BID MAINTENANCE PSTS70L example 1

FOR VACATION YEAR: 09

EMPLOYEE NAME: ( SMITH JB ) EMPLOYEE NO: ( 000995424 )

DIST/SDIST: IH BR ADVERTISE ID: VAC BID CLOSE DATE: 12/01/08

VAC LIST: IHBRSWGB VAC QUAL DATE: 11/03/78 WK BEGS ON: MON OR CLDR DAYS: N

WEEKS DUE: 5 DAYS: 35 MAX VACATIONS: 5 WEEKS BY DAYS ALLOWED: 1 CLAIM: ( 0 )

---------------------------->>>> VACATION 01 <<<<-----------------------------

VAC WEEK DUR OR WEEK DUR OR WEEK DUR OR WEEK DUR OR WEEK DUR OR WEEK DUR

01 1 51 1 2 47 1 3 35 1 4 37 1 5 38 1 6

7 8 9 10 11 12

COMMENTS ( )

( )

------------------------>>>> VACATION WEEKS <<<<------------------------------

01- 01/05 08- 02/23 15- 04/13 22- 06/01 29- 07/20 36- 09/07 43- 10/26 50- 12/14

02- 01/12 09- 03/02 16- 04/20 23- 06/08 30- 07/27 37- 09/14 44- 11/02 51- 12/21

03- 01/19 10- 03/09 17- 04/27 24- 06/15 31- 08/03 38- 09/21 45- 11/09 52- 12/28

04- 01/26 11- 03/16 18- 05/04 25- 06/22 32- 08/10 39- 09/28 46- 11/16 53- /

05- 02/02 12- 03/23 19- 05/11 26- 06/29 33- 08/17 40- 10/05 47- 11/23 54- /

06- 02/09 13- 03/30 20- 05/18 27- 07/06 34- 08/24 41- 10/12 48- 11/30 55- /

07- 02/16 14- 04/06 21- 05/25 28- 07/13 35- 08/31 42- 10/19 49- 12/07 56- /

LAST UPDATE: BY:

ENTER=INQ F1=HELP F3=EXIT F5=UPDATE F7=SCR UP F8=SCR DOWN F12=NEXT VACATION

This is an example of a proper vacation bid. Below is an employee’s bid for his 2^nd vacation period.

10/16/08 EMPLOYEE VACATION BID MAINTENANCE PSTS70L example 2

FOR VACATION YEAR: 09

EMPLOYEE NAME: ( SMITH JB ) EMPLOYEE NO: ( 000995424 )

DIST/SDIST: IH BR ADVERTISE ID: VAC BID CLOSE DATE: 12/01/08

VAC LIST: IHBRSWGB VAC QUAL DATE: 11/03/78 WK BEGS ON: MON OR CLDR DAYS: N

WEEKS DUE: 5 DAYS: 35 MAX VACATIONS: 5 WEEKS BY DAYS ALLOWED: 1 CLAIM: ( 0 )

---------------------------->>>> VACATION 02 <<<<-----------------------------

VAC WEEK DUR OR WEEK DUR OR WEEK DUR OR WEEK DUR OR WEEK DUR OR WEEK DUR

02 1 47 1 2 3 4 5 6