Demotion Procedure...

Lori Perdue

Hello, All... I have a situation that is not complex in a 'common sense' way, but from a legal standpoint, it could be. We are a manufacturing facility, and we have many levels of employees in our Production Dept. In the past, my Production Supervisors have been very lax in counseling & writing people up for infractions of policy, or poor performance issues. We are now attempting to correct this problem, but it's a learning procedure for my newer Supervisors. One employee moved up through the ranks over the past 2 years, and was promoted to a Line Leader position & pay. She then was offered an Production Admin position, knowing that she is very neat, precise & has good knowledge & record keeping skills. These promoted positions went just fine for about 6 months. Then, her attitude changed, and she literally stopped doing her job. She whined & complained. She became very difficult. The problem is the Supervisors never acted when they should have. They did nothing. Now because of an impending RIF / Re-structuring, the 'common sense' solution is to demote her to a Line Operator position & pay. That's what she's been doing anyway. She just kind of stopped doing her higher-level jobs, and worked her way back onto the Production Lines. The problem is that at the point of the performance issues, NO FORMAL DOCUMENTATION of our concerns was ever completed. Sad, but true... So as far as her file indicates, she's been a model employee. There are others in our organization that are also affected by this Re-Structuring, that, because of their experience, we can laterally place, without cutting their $$. This person really does not deserve to keep her higher salary, and there is no other lateral position that she is qualified for that we can move her into. So, how do I begin to place her 'officially' back into the dept as a line worker, plus tell her that a pay cut comes with this? If we still needed her in the role as a Line Leader or Admin, I could then make it a performance issue, saying if she successfully meets the req's of these positions, then she can keep her $$. If she didn't truly meet the req's THEN we could do the right thing & begin the counseling process. But I don't need her as either job right now because of our Re-Structuring. So she has demoted herself in actual JOB duties by going back to the line work, but she thinks she can keep her salary. We would keep her in that capacity on the line, but not at her current $$. With no previous counselings, a record of decent reviews, plus the RIF looming, I do not want to give her any ammunition for the DLLR - or the Labor Board. Any ideas???
Lori In Maryland

System

First of all, I hope the supervisors' boss disciplined them for their serious failure to do their job. They allowed an employee to disregard her duties, flaunt the rules, and collect money for work that she didn't perform. And they didn't document or try to correct her sudden decline in performance. Now, if you try to correct the supervisors' mistakes, there's a very real risk that this whiner/complainer will file a half-baked lawsuit that could cost your company thousands (or tens of thousands) of dollars in legal fees.

As for your question, it sounds like you're simply eliminating her position or at least eliminating the duties that were earning her additional pay. If that's the case, you don't have to address her performance.

But if your decision is somehow based on her performance, then you'll probably want proof to back you up. Do you have files, records, or witnesses to show that she worked on the line all day, every day? Or do you have proof that the higher-level work that she was supposed to do was never done (or was done by someone else)? You might not have formal documentation, but you could have enough proof to make you comfortable demoting her.

Good luck.

James Sokolowski
Senior Editor
M. Lee Smith Publishers