Labor Relations Essay

With each of these scenarios also give the type of employer, the history of the worker at that company, the incident which arose, why it was a clear violation of employer policy, and what would be the likely result of arbitration of this issue if the employee acknowledged his wrong doing but asked to keep his job. Explain the reasoning for our considered outcome. When an employer has to discipline a unionized employee there are four steps to the grievance (infraction) procedure. In the first step the employee is given the grievance in an informal oral manner so a quick resolution can be made, and before a written record is established. The second step in the grievance procedure is to present the grievance to the industrial relations representative or (IR). The IR representative is familiar with the union’s contract and decides on a disciplinary action or if the grievance involves an employee discharge then the union will take it to step three. In step three the employee has union representation and the grievance is most likely settled at this step, if an agreement cannot be made then step four is the last chance to resolve the grievance or it goes to arbitration. Arbitration is a quasi-judicial process in which parties agree to submit unresolved disputes to a neutral third party for binding settlement. [ (Labor Relations, 10th Edition, 2009) ] (pg. 490). When an employee repeatedly breaks the rules and has been disciplined the union, employer, and employee write up a last chance agreement (LCA). This is an agreement drawn up by all parties stating that if the employee has another grievance violation within a certain amount of time the employee will be terminated. The type of employer that my three employees work at is a security company. The security company has hired all three as security officers and upon hiring they were informed of the company’s rules and the grievances that are imposed if the rules are not followed. All three employees have acknowledged the rules, and have signed a document stating that they understand the rules and the disciplinary actions taken if they break the rules. John, an officer at the security company, has never had any disciplinary actions against him since he started working for the company and has been a great employee thus far. John was involved in an incident while on duty with the company patrol vehicle. He has had an accident in the patrol vehicle and has run into a parked car while patrolling the parking lot. It is mandatory that if an employee is involved in an accident with a company vehicle while on duty a drug test is taken and if the drug test shows that John was under the influence (which he was) then that is grounds for immediate termination of his employment. John knows that this is a clear violation of company policy and has requested his union representative. If this disciplinary grievance goes to arbitration the likely result would still be the termination of John’s employment with the security company. The reason for my considered outcome is John was under the influence of drugs while on duty. There is a no tolerance policy for drug use especially while on duty, he could have done a lot more damage and very easily could have injured an individual in the process. Bill, an officer at the security company, has had issues with his behavior and attendance since he started working for the security company three months ago. It has affected his performance on the job and he has had two disciplinary actions against him in three months time. Company policy states that if an employee has three disciplinary actions in a 90 day period that is grounds for termination. Bill has just showed up late again for work and this will be his third grievance for the 90 day period. Bill admits his tardiness and swears that he will not be late again if he is given another chance to improve his attendance. Bill goes to arbitration and the likely result of the arbitration will be that Bill, the employer, and union will draw up a last chance agreement (LCA) for Bill to sign and abide by for a specific length of time. If Bill violates that agreement then it is automatic grounds for termination of his employment at the security company. The reason for my considered outcome of this scenario is because this is the most realistic way a company would handle this kind of disciplinary problem with an employee. Usually if an employee has had three disciplinary actions in a 90 day period that shows a pattern of undesired work behavior and the employer is going to want a last chance agreement to put an end to the undesired behavior. Bob, an officer at the security company, has been employed by the company for almost two years. Bob had a disciplinary action against him the second month of his employment with the security company. The infraction was a complaint of sexual harassment against one of his female co-workers at a previous job site. The complaint was investigated and Bob admitted to saying some inappropriate comments to his co-worker. The security company has a strict no tolerance policy on sexual harassment, but because Bob has admitted his wrong doing and the co-worker accepted his apology, Bob was permitted to stay employed with the security company and was put on a last chance agreement which he completed with no further issues. My considered outcome for this scenario was a bit light considering what Bob’s disciplinary action was for. The reason I considered giving Bob a second chance is that he acknowledged what he had done wrong and apologized to the co-worker that he had offended. Bob completed his last chance agreement he had made and has not had any other grievances since then. Bob probably did not think what he had said to his fellow co-worker would offend her like it did, and because it did he watches what he says and talks about while at work so he does not make the same mistake twice. Reference Fossum, J. A. (2009). Labor Relations (10th ed. ). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.