Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

Death in Family policy Be sure to check for dependent eligibility The company recognizes the emo tional stress and problems involved when a member of an employee’s im mediate family passes away and is sympathetic with the bereaved employee and his family. The purpose of this policy is to grant a reasonable amount of time off from scheduled work to make necessary funeral ar rangements, attend the funeral, and to minimize loss of income to the affected employee during this -very trying period. In the event of a death in an active employee’s immediate family, he may be eligible for an excused absence for up to three (3) days for the purpose of attending the funeral. Payment will be made at the employees regular straight time base hourly rate for actual hours scheduled to work, up to a maximum of eight (8) hours per day. Immediate family is defined as the employee’s hus band, wife, father, mother, grand mother, grandfather, son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter, brother, sister, mother-in-law, father-in-law. Such excused absences will be granted under the following conditions: • In order to be eligible for this benefit, the employee must attend the funeral of the deceased unless he is incapacitated due to medical reasons connected with the death. • The period of excused absence shall be the day before, the day of, and the day after the funeral if these days are scheduled working days. Should any of these days occur at a time when work is not scheduled such as, Sunday, holidays, vacation periods, etc., pay will not be made for those days. Pay for such excused absences shall be made only for actual time lost from the employee’s scheduled work, up to a maximum eight (8) hours per day. • Pay will be made only when the employee has notified his assistant departmental superintendent as soon as it is practicable. Satisfactory proof of death may be required before payment can be made. • Excused absence for family death may not be retroactive, postponed, nor spread. • Hours paid under this policy will be excluded in computing overtime for the week that such hours are paid and will be exclusive of shift premium. • Employees on authorized Leaves of Absence granted specifically for the employee to personally care for and immediate family member who ex pires will be eligible for Death In Family Pay. If your child’s education or dependency status has changed, you should remember to check your per sonnel office to determine if your child is still eligible for coverage under the company’s insurance plan. Basically, unmarried children are covered if: • they are under 19, or • full-time students under age 24. Children who are “aging out” and are no longer eligible for coverage under the company’s plan can contact the personnel department for informa tion on alternate types of coverage. The COBRA law requires employers to provide medical insurance coverage to employees and/or eligible dependents, for a fee who would other wise lose coverage. If any of the following events occur to your eligible dependents, you should notify the personnel office. This notification must occur within 60 days of the event. • You have a child who gets married and is no longer eligible for coverage as your dependent. • You have a child who graduates from college but is not yet employed or covered under another plan. • You have a child who quits or has an extended break in college. • You have a child who reaches the age at which they are no longer an eligible dependent. • You and your spouse become legal ly separated or divorced. Employees can get blood pressure checked by nurses Clinton plant registered nurses Gloria Outlaw, Nell Haggart, and Mary Ann Stewart are available to check employees’ blood pressure on request. High blood pressure is a silent killer because most people do not know they have it. Clinton’s trained staff is highly qualified to take blood pressure reading. The service is available as a benefit to all employees during the nurse’s regularly scheduled clinic hours. Blood pressure checks require very little waiting time. It is measured with a sphygomanometer, the cuff attached to a measuring device, and is reported in two numbers: systolic pressure, the force of the blood when the heart beats; and diastolic pressure, the force of the blood when the heart rests between beats. Clinton Mills knows that high blood pressure has been shown to increase the risk of stroke and heart disease. If you can lower your blood pressure, then you can lower the risks. Several factors increase a persons’s risk of high blood pressure, also called hypertension. Some factors include: • Family history. Children of parents with high blood pressure are at risk. • Age. Symptoms often develop among people in their 30s and 40s and are more common among the elderly. High blood pressure is a silent killer because most people do not know they have it. • Race. For unknown reasons, hyper tension is more common among blacks than whites. • Salt consumption. Reducing so dium in the diet is always recom mended by doctors. • Alcohol consumption. Heavy drink ing, which can raise pressure in arte ries, should be avoided at all time. • Cigarette smoking. Smoking ele vates blood pressure and makes the heart work harder; it also is a risk for heart disease. Rufus Bluford takes advantage of free blood pressure screen ing from Mrs. Nell Haggart, R.N. page 4 - Cloth Maker