Here is the way I understand it having been over it many times with different suits.
You have the same amount of PTO that your YOS warrants. I'll use myself as an example with 6 YOS at Con-way - you can apply your YOS and it's the same thing.
6 years gives me 2 weeks of vacation and an additional 5 PTO days under the old system. Under the recent system that would give me 15 PTO days or 120 total hours at the beginning of the year.
Stay with me here - I still have 120 total hours for year 7 but it will not show up on my pay stub that way because we now accrue it throughout the year instead of getting it all at the beginning. This was the accounting trick that took the vacation liability off the books. I could still use all 15 days in February if I so choose and it did not put me more than ten days in the hole, but it would show a negative balance for PTO on my stub. I would never notice the difference unless I quit Con-way Freight during 2010.If I did, I would owe the company whatever money I received from the days I had not yet accrued.
I hope that makes sense to everyone - now I'm really gonna confuse you..
You actually have up to 10 more PTO days to use in 2010 with the way they worded it and per the new company policy - you can go up to 10 days or an 80 hour negative balance. Again, you would never know the difference unless you quit or retired. Using myself as an example again, my 6 YOS equals 15 total earned days throughout the year, but since we can go up to 10 days negative I could actually take 25 - but not all at once because I can never be more than negative 10 days... Got that.. It's confusing but unless you plan on using all of your vacation in January, you'll never notice the difference till you quit or retire.
I know I'm accurate here so if you have any questions I'll answer as best that I can.
