On September 19 we told you that we had to make adjustments to the original BLET back pay re-gross. Since that time, we have been working with the BLET General Committees, Compensation Systems, and Technology Services to make the necessary corrections. Since some of the adjustments require significant computer programming and manual processing, the new timeline reflects the time it will take to insure accurate payments.

The current plan is to issue the second back pay re-gross checks on December 17. These checks will include a recalculation of all of the back pay corrections previously identified.

On December 19, engineers will receive a profit sharing check that is based on the back pay received for years 2005 and 2006. The profit sharing payout for these years was 100% of the maximum. Therefore, depending on which plans under which you were covered, you can expect to receive a payout between 8% and 12% of your back pay earnings during for these periods.

To address confusion about how to decipher the 816s when we did the original re-gross, we will provide a document that communicates exactly how the re-gross and profit sharing payments are accounted for on the 816s in our next update Again we appreciate your patience as we have worked through getting this right.

This timeline really is the earliest that we believe we can develop, test, and then go through the process changes that have to be made to insure accurate payments.