HRM Case

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Chapter 9: Employee Rights and Labor Relations

Managing and Leading Your Workforce: Trust and Communication

Trust

Simply faith in the character and actions of another

Communication

The process of transmitting information and meaning

Listening Skills

Crucial for effective communication to occur

Job Satisfaction

Feelings of well-being and acceptance of place in organization

Generally measured along a continuum from:

Satisfied/positive/high

Dissatisfied/negative/low

Affects worker productivity, absenteeism, and turnover

Ways to Measure Job Satisfaction

Faces Scale

Employees circle the face that matches their satisfaction

Best for a brief job satisfaction assessment

Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS)

Organizational development survey that is valid and reliable for measuring job satisfaction in workplace

Best for an in-depth job satisfaction assessment

Exhibit 9-1: Female Faces Scale

Source: “Development of a female faces scale for measuring job satisfaction” by Randall B. Dunham and Jeanne B. Herman, Journal of Applied Psychology, 60(5), October 1975, 629–631.

EXHIBIT 9-2: SAMPLE OF JOB SATISFACTION SURVEY (JSS) QUESTIONS21

Rights and Employee Development

Before organizations can develop, discipline, or terminate employees and develop high-performance teams, HR must understand employee and management rights.

They do this to ensure they don’t violate those rights or develop or discipline employees unethically or illegally.

Exhibit 9-3: Commonly Accepted Employee Rights

Types of Rights

Right of Free Consent

Employees have the right to know what they’re asked to do and consequences of that action.

Employers must ensure employees voluntarily agree to do a particular job or task.

Employers who force employees against their will or manipulate them violate employees’ right to free consent.

Types of Rights

Right to Due Process

When employers contemplate disciplinary action, employees have a right to know what they are accused of, any evidence or proof, and the ability to tell their side. Due process avoids false accusations.

Right to Life and Safety

Employees have the right to be protected from harm to the best of employers’ ability.

Types of Rights

Right of Freedom of Conscience (Limited)

Employees should not be asked to do something that violates their values and beliefs as long as these reflect societal norms.

Right to Privacy (Limited)

The right to privacy protects people from unreasonable or unwarranted intrusions into their personal affairs, unless employers feel they might pose a hazard to others.

Types of Rights

Right to Free Speech (Limited)

The First Amendment applies to government agencies limiting speech.

In the workplace, individual freedom of speech is limited.

Individuals should still express concerns or discontent with policies without fear of harm.

Management Rights

Codes of Conduct: Employers have a right to create a code of employee conduct. It must identify the firm’s ethics and values and serve as a guide to individual action.

Employment-at-Will: Allows company or employee to break work relationship at any time with or without reason as long as laws are not violated.

Exceptions to Employment-at-Will

Public policy exceptions

Evidence of an implied contract

Lack of good faith and fair dealing

Model 9-1: The Coaching Model

Coaching is the process of giving motivational feedback to maintain and improve performance.

Describe current performance

Describe desired performance

Get a commitment to change

Follow up

Management Counseling

The process of giving employees feedback (so they realize that a problem is affecting their job performance) and referring employees with problems that cannot be managed within the work structure to the organization’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP).

Discipline Basics

Try coaching first

Discipline is corrective action designed to get employees to meet standards and the code of conduct

Common offenses needing discipline are theft, harassment, and safety violations

Disciplining: Objectives

The major objective of coaching, counseling, and discipline is to change behavior.

Secondary objectives are to maintain authority when challenged and let employees know action will be taken when standing plans or performance requirements are not met.

Just Cause

Seven Tests of Fairness and Due Process in Disciplinary Actions

Did the employee receive fair warning?

Is the rule reasonably related to the orderly, efficient, and safe operation of the company’s business and expected employee performance?

Did the employer validate the alleged infraction prior to administering discipline?

Just Cause

Was the investigation conducted fairly and objectively?

Was there substantial evidence or proof that the employee was guilty as charged?

Has the company applied its rules, orders, and penalties even-handedly without discrimination?

Was the degree of discipline reasonably related to the seriousness of the employee’s proven offense and record of the employee’s service with the company?

Exhibit 9-4: Guidelines for Effective Discipline

Progressive Discipline

With progressive discipline, the employer provides the employee with opportunities to correct poor behavior before termination.

Steps:

Informal coaching talk

Oral warning

Written warning

Suspension

Termination

Model 9-2: The Discipline Model

Refer to past feedback

Ask why the undesired behavior was used

Give the discipline

Get a commitment to change and develop a plan

Summarize and state the follow-up

Termination

Necessary when an employee cannot be made into a productive member of the workforce.

Causes for dismissal immediately following investigation:

Gross negligence is a serious failure to exercise care in the work environment.

Serious misconduct is intentional behavior that can potentially cause great harm to another or the firm.

Legal Issues in Labor Relations

Managers must understand constraints set by labor laws to successfully do their job.

Three types of labor relations laws:

Laws that deal with unions and unionization

Laws that govern how layoffs must be handled

Laws that govern collective bargaining

Exhibit 9-5: Major Labor Laws

Railway Labor Act (RLA) of 1926

Enacted to limit potential for railroad strikes to affect interstate commerce

Provides protection for worker rights to join a union–no more Yellow Dog contracts

Requires that in major disputes, management and labor must participate in a negotiation and mediation process presided by the National Mediation Board before a strike may be called

National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935 (The Wagner Act)

Gives employees rights, without fear of persecution, to . . .

Self-organize or form, join, or assist labor organizations

Bargain collectively through representatives of their choosing

Engage in concerted activities to collective bargain or other mutual aid or protection

Refrain from such activities unless that right may be affected by an agreement that requires membership in a labor organization as a condition of employment

Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) of 1947 (Taft-Hartley Act)

Amendment to 1935 NLRA that rebalanced employer and employee rights by prohibiting specific unfair practices by unions, including the following:

Jurisdictional and wildcat strikes

Secondary boycotts

Union shops

Coercive tactics

Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) of 1988

Firms that employ more than 100 full-time employees must notify them of a layoff at least 60 days ahead of time when laying off more than 50 employees.

All workers are entitled to this notice, including hourly and salaried workers and managers.

Union Organizing

People Join Unions for a Variety of Reasons

Better pay and benefits

Unfair management practices

Poor labor relations

Job security

Exhibit 9-6: The Union Organizing Process

Union Organizing: The NO TIPS Rule

No Threats Managers cannot threaten that firm will shut down a facility that votes for unionization.

No Interrogations – Managers cannot ask employees about union organizing activities.

No Promises – Managers cannot promise employees pay or benefits rewards if they vote against union authorization.

No Spying – Managers cannot plant spies in union organizing meetings or other activities.

Labor Relations and Collective Bargaining

Labor Relations: Interactions between management and unionized employees

Collective Bargaining: Negotiation process resulting in a contract between union employees and management that covers employment conditions

Grievance: Formal complaint concerning pay, working conditions, or violations of other factors in a collective bargaining agreement

Model 9-3: The Employee Complaint Resolution Model

Listen to the complaint and paraphrase it.

Have the complainer recommend a solution.

Schedule time to get all the facts and/or make a decision.

Develop a plan to resolve the complaint.

Implement the plan and follow up.

Trends and Issues in HRM

Facebook, Twitter, and Social Media at Work: Are They Out of Control?

Social media sites can cause any number of problems.

Nonunion Worker Protection and the NLRB

The NLRB says that workers have a right to engage in “protected concerted activities” in the workplace.