Operations Pending Closing Between the date hereof and the Closing, except as (a) set forth in this Agreement or the Option Exercise Agreement, (b) contemplated by the applicable subsection of Schedule 5.01, or (c) required by applicable Law or the regulations or requirements of any regulatory organization applicable to WTGS TV, the Seller or the LIN Companies, as the case may be, unless Buyer otherwise consents in writing which request for consent shall be directed to and promptly considered in accordance with the terms and conditions of this Section 5.01 by Buyer and which consent shall (i) not be unreasonably withheld, conditioned or delayed in the case of clauses (c), (e), (f), (g), (h), (i), (l), (n), (r), (s), (t), (u) or (w), and (ii) which may otherwise be withheld in Buyer’s sole discretion, the LIN Companies shall, and Seller shall use commercially reasonable efforts to cause WTGS TV and, prior to the Merger Closing, the LIN Companies to, and the Seller shall, following the Merger Closing and prior to the Closing:
(a) operate the Station in the ordinary course and in all material respects in accordance with the Communications Laws, the FCC Licenses and with all other applicable Laws;
(b) not cause or permit, or agree or commit to cause or permit, by act or failure to act, any of the FCC Licenses to expire or to be revoked, suspended or adversely modified, or take or fail to take any action that would cause the FCC or any other Governmental Authority to institute proceedings (other than proceedings of general applicability) for the suspension, revocation or adverse modification of any of the FCC Licenses listed on Schedule 3.04(a);
(c) other than in the ordinary course of business or for the purpose of disposing of obsolete or worthless assets, not (i) sell, lease, license or dispose of or agree to sell, lease, license or dispose of any material assets unless replaced with similar items of substantially equal or greater value and utility or (ii) create, assume or permit to exist any Liens upon their assets, except for Permitted Liens;
(d) not dissolve, liquidate, merge or consolidate with any other entity;
(e) maintain, repair and replace the Tangible Personal Property, including any Tangible Personal Property which has been damaged prior to Closing, and maintain, repair and replace the Real Property, including any improvements thereon, which has been damaged prior to Closing, in each case in the ordinary course of business;
(i) upon reasonable written advance notice, give Buyer and its representatives reasonable access at reasonable, mutually agreed-upon times during normal business hours to the Station, and furnish Buyer with information relating to the Business that Buyer may reasonably request, provided, however, that such access rights shall not be exercised in a manner that interferes with the Business and (ii) otherwise provide such reasonable assistance and cooperation as may be requested by Buyer from time to time prior to the Closing Date to reasonably facilitate the transition of the Business, including facilities, operations and applicable data, to Buyer upon and effective as of the Effective Time;
(g) except as otherwise required by Law, not enter into, renew or renegotiate any employment agreement with a Transferred Employee providing for annual compensation in excess of $100,000, any severance agreement or any labor, or union agreement or plan, including any Collective Bargaining Agreement, that will be binding upon Buyer after the Closing;
(h) not hire or terminate the employment of any Station general manager or any other Transferred Employee with annual aggregate non-equity compensation, including target bonuses, in excess of $100,000, excluding any terminations for “cause” as reasonably determined by Sellers;
(i) except in the ordinary course of business, not (i) materially increase the compensation or benefits payable to any Transferred Employee, or (ii) modify any severance policy applicable to any Transferred Employee that would result in any material increase in the amount of severance payable to any such Transferred Employee (or would materially expand the circumstances in which such severance is payable);
(j) not sell, lease, license or otherwise dispose of or encumber any Station Asset except (i) pursuant to or in accordance with existing Assumed Contracts or (ii) immaterial Station Assets in the ordinary course of business consistent with past practices;
(k) use commercially reasonable efforts to maintain the Station’s MVPD carriage existing as of the date of this Agreement;
(l) except for agreements and contracts which can be terminated by WTGS TV, the Seller or LIN Companies, as applicable, without penalty upon notice of ninety (90) days or less, not (i) enter into any agreement or contract that would have been a Material Contract were WTGS TV, the Seller or LIN Companies, as applicable, a party or subject thereto on the date of this Agreement unless such agreement or contract (x) is entered into in the ordinary course of business and (y) does not involve payments by WTGS TV, the Seller or LIN Companies, as applicable, of greater than $250,000 during any twelve (12) month period, (ii) amend in any material respect any Material Contract unless such amendment (x) is effected in the ordinary course of business, (y) does not increase the amount of payments to be made by WTGS TV, the Seller or LIN Companies, as applicable, during any twelve (12) month period by $250,000 or more or (iii) terminate or waive any material right under any Material Contract other than in the ordinary course of business (excluding the expiration of any Material Contract in accordance with its terms) (it being understood that if any such entry into, or amendment or termination of any such agreement or contract is permitted pursuant to this Section 5.1(k) as a result of the references to acts taken in the ordinary course of business, but such action would otherwise be prohibited by any other provision of this Section 5.1, then this Section 5.1(k) shall not be interpreted to permit such action without the prior written consent of Buyer as contemplated hereby);
(m) not enter into any Contract constituting a Sharing Agreement with respect to the Station;
(n) not change any accounting practices, procedures or methods (except for any change required under GAAP or applicable law) or maintain its books and records, in each case in a manner other than in the ordinary course of business;
(o) not make or agree or commit to make any capital expenditure, except (i) for capital expenditures equal to or less than $200,000 in connection with any particular project or equal to or less than $500,000 in the aggregate, and (ii) for emergency commitments or expenditures;
(p) maintain its qualifications to hold the FCC Licenses with respect to the Station and not take any action that will materially impair such FCC Licenses or such qualifications;
(q) promote the programming of the Station (both on-air and using third party media) in the ordinary course of business, taking into account inventory availability;
(r) not adopt, enter into or become bound by any new Employee Plan or amend, modify or terminate any Employee Plan, except (i) to comply with applicable Law, (ii) in the ordinary course of business consistent with past practices without any additional post-Closing material liability to WTGS TV, the Seller or LIN Companies, as applicable, or (iii) as otherwise contemplated by this Agreement;
(s) keep in full force and effect the material insurance policies set forth on Schedule 3.12 (or other insurance policies comparable in amount and scope);
(t) not make or rescind any election relating to Taxes, settle or compromise any claim, action, suit, litigation, proceeding, arbitration, investigation, audit or controversy relating to Taxes, for any taxable period ending on or after September 30, 2012, or change any of its methods of reporting income or deductions on its Income Tax Returns, or the classifications of its existing property and assets, in each case, to the extent such action would reasonably be expected to materially and adversely affect Buyer or its Affiliates after the Closing;
(u) not (i) enter into or agree or commit to enter into any new Tradeout Agreement relating to the Station with a value in excess of $40,000, and $200,000 in the aggregate, prior to Closing that will not be fully performed prior to the Closing or (ii) make any guarantee of commercial ratings other than in the ordinary course of business consistent with past practice;
(i) utilize the Program Rights only in the ordinary course of business consistent with past practice and (ii) not sell or otherwise dispose of any such Program Rights;
(w) not extend credit to advertisers other than in the ordinary course of business consistent with past practice;
(x) timely make retransmission consent elections with all MVPDs located in or serving the Station’s Markets;
(y) not enter into any retransmission consent agreement relating to the Station other than as set forth on Schedule 5.01(y);
(z) not enter into any Contract with any Affiliate or Subsidiary of Seller that survives the Closing; and
(aa) not agree, commit or resolve to take any actions inconsistent with the foregoing.
Supervisors Working (a) The Employer agrees that the function of supervisors is the supervision of Employees and not the performance of the work of the employees they supervise. Accordingly, the Employer agrees that supervisors or other employees of the Employer who are not members of the bargaining unit shall not perform any bargaining unit work, except to train employees or demonstrate safety, or as otherwise provided in the applicable Supplement, Rider or Addendum. However, in the case of Acts of God, supervisors shall comply with the procedures in subsections (b) and (c) and may only perform bargaining unit work until bargaining unit employees are available. The Employer shall make every reasonable effort to maintain a sufficient workforce to staff its operations with bargaining unit employees. The Employer also agrees that supervisors or other employees of the Employer who are not members of the bargaining unit shall not perform bargaining unit work in preparing the work areas before the start of the Employer’s hub, preload or reload operation, nor shall the Employer send any bargaining unit employee home and then have such employee’s work performed by a supervisor or other employees of the Employer who are not a member of the bargaining unit.
(b) When additional employees are necessary to complete the Employer’s operations on any shift or within any classification, the supervisor shall exhaust all established local practices to first use bargaining unit employees including where applicable, double shifting, early call-in, and overtime.
(c) If there is no established local practice, the following shall apply with regard to inside work. Within each building, each operation will maintain appropriate list(s), by seniority, of those part-time employees requesting coverage work. It will be the employees’ responsibility to sign up on the appropriate list. The Company shall post such lists and employees who are interested in adding their names to the lists shall do so on the first working day of each month. It will be the employee’s responsibility to make sure his/her their contact information is correct. Employees who are unavailable to work on three (3) separate occasions within a calendar month shall have their names removed from the coverage list. Those employees shall be eligible to re-sign the list the following month. When coverage work is available, the Company will use the appropriate list to fill the required positions, and such employees will work as assigned. The employee must be qualified for the available work and double shift employees shall have seniority among themselves. No employee is allowed to work more than two (2) shifts in any twenty-four (24) hour period. Local call verification practices and procedures shall remain in place. Nothing contained in this Section shall change existing practices or procedures covering full-time work.
(d) If it is determined at any step of the grievance and/or arbitration procedure that this Section, or a “supervisor working” provision in a Supplement, Rider or Addendum, has been violated, the aggrieved employee will be paid as follows: (i) if the actual hours worked by the supervisor amounts to two (2) hours or less, the aggrieved employee will be paid for the actual hours worked by the supervisor at the rate of double time the employee’s rate of pay at the time of the incident; or (ii) if the supervisor works more than two (2) hours, the aggrieved employee shall be paid four (4) hours at straight time or actual hours worked at double time the employee’s rate of pay at the time of the incident, whichever is greater. If no aggrieved employee can be identified, the payment will be made to the grievant. Such remedy shall be in addition to any other remedies sought by the Union in the appropriate grievance procedure. If a Supplement, Rider, or Addendum does not have a provision requiring notice to the xxxxxxx when a supervisor works the following shall be incorporated: “In the event a supervisor does perform bargaining unit work, the Employer shall notify the appropriate shop xxxxxxx as soon as possible.” In the event that any individual supervisor is found to be in violation of the first paragraph of this Subsection three (3) times in any nine (9) month rolling period, the grievance shall be paid at triple quadruple time the employee’s rate of pay for the hours specified in the first paragraph of this subsection.
