Historical company. Salaried at severe disadvantage
Pros
BIW is a historic company which has always kept the city of Bath and the mid-coast region of Maine employed. The pay is above industry average. No one ever gets fired. Unlimited sick time.
Cons
Where to begin? Every employee clocks in and is expected to clock 40 hours. Even Salaried Exempt employees. All except upper management and those employees on Executive Comp. there is no flex at all. If you work less than 40 hours, BAM, vacation time gone for every hour, or fraction of an hour, missed. All hours are watched and reported on. Sick time, although unlimited, is highly discouraged. If sick time is taken, time accounting does not log a sick day until Saturday because whatever time you missed is expected to be made up as much as possible. Each week my department is given a sheet of paper with sick time vs. overtime on it and your overtime BETTER be higher than your sick time or you are on "the list". The list is the record of that sick vs overtime average and if you appear on that list more than a few times you are moved up in the lay off list. Basically, we live in fear of being sick cause we'll be the next to go. The unions run the shipyard, when negotiations are underway every salaried employee knows there will be cuts to something of theirs because the union will get everything they ask for. The benefits for salaried employees have been cut and the cost raised every year. The good plans have all been eliminated and all salaried are being pushed into the HSA plan. Every employee starts with just ten days of vacation and of those ten days, the shipyard basically tells you that you need to burn 4 of them for the holiday shutdown...while the union employees get those days off with pay. Upon hiring, an employee may request 2 additional days of vacation. If granted, the employee is told that those two days are an advance on their five year additional days. So when five years comes....you get no more days. Basically, you have to work ten years until you can earn more than 12 days of vacation. Yearly merit increases have been halted every other year in lieu of lump sum bonuses equalling about 1.9% yet, executive compensation is never halted and union annually negotiated bonuses of $3000 a person are never stopped. Nepotism is also a big deal. Sons working for fathers and being promoted over more experienced, senior professionals. It's a mess. Basically, the shipyard has been around forever and, sometimes it runs itself like it has. The motto of BIW shouldn't be "Bath Built is Best Built", it should be "This the way we've always done it, don't try to change us"
