Several General Chairmen met with Labor Relations officers on January 18, 2000, and it was confirmed that the Carrier does not intend to resurrect its much-criticized Availability Policy. While employee absenteeism is still a very hot topic, the Carrier assured us that future "guidelines" for attendance standards will set general expectations for overall attendance in unassigned service, but probably would not address assigned service at all. The Carrier acknowledged that employees are entitled to reasonable layoff privileges and sometimes need to "bunch" time off, so that measurement of attendance on a strict month-to-month basis is not realistic. The Carrier also agreed to discuss proposals designed to guarantee scheduled off time for employees in all types of service. Recognizing that probably no single arrangement will fit every type of service in every location, we will develop some pilot programs to experiment with these arrangements, subject of course to the approval of the involved Local Chairmen. Further information will be posted as this project moves forward.