H.R. being challenged!!!!!!!!!!

tfevergrn

We have a manager who is having a problem understanding the difference between an employee benefit vs. solicitation. They think that allowing the offering of Girl Scout Cookie solicitation from employees is the same as H.R. offering discounts to employees to purchase dinners, see's candy, etc. which is offered and handled through H.R. and H.R. deals with the vendor offering the discount, Disneyland, Knottsberry Farm and all others would fall under this category. We have a No Solicitation policy that addresses the sale of things on company time, by employees. But this person thinks when H.R. offers discounts to employees that it is solicitation as well. Can I get your feedback on this and can anyone offer any info link to where I can go to obtain and provide this employee with info that will help them understand the difference. Thanks in advance for your help........

System

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 11-10-01 AT 01:54PM (CST)[/font][p]Generally, a solicitation is probably considered a request or plea of some kind for money, services, goods, etc. The company offering "benefits" like tickets and coupons is, as you said, something else. But both need to be okayed by the company or else there could be problems.

I don't know if there is anything that is authoritative that speaks to the specific distinctions that you want to make to the manager. You may need to extract some points. Probably a good source for describing solicitations is in NLRB decisions affecting unions that try to solicit union membership during organizational drives or that demand posting rights because the company failed to control posts on bulletin boards for charities, solicitaitons from co-workers, etc. There may also be rulings from NLRB on what constitutes a fringe benefit. But whether or not those decisions speak directly to the issue you want to resolve is unclear until you check.

I guess another area may be IRS and tax laws, to see how it describes "fringe benefits for various tax purposes. That again may help provide some distinction.

Good luck.

WOCO Frank

The manager is an idiot. Tell him I said so.

I always hate to add paperwork just because of one idiot (seriously - I've never had an employee who didn't understand that distinction), but maybe the only way to address this is to carefully define in your policy what constitutes a solicitation, specifically outlining the difference between the solicitation and the benefit.

tfevergrn

Thank you for your responses. But let me throw this out there as well. Wouldn't whatever company (See's candy, Disneyland, etc.), be soliciting by offering discounts to employers in an effort to increase sales, making it more enticing to purchase? By the employer offering the discount to employees, wouldn't we be condoning/allowing solicitation? I think I am missing something here and can't put my finger on it.

Hatchetman

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 11-13-01 AT 09:35PM (CST)[/font][p]The thrust of your last question is not the same as the thrust of your first question. For the most part, an employer is free to decide what companies, organizations, charities, etc. it will let solicit on its premises. The underlying consistent condition probably is that any solicitation not interfere with work production.

The focus of your last question isn't so much what's the difference between solicitation and a company offering an employee some type of benefit or access to as a movie ticket book or life insurance plan, but rather the employer's desire to control access for several reasons: Obviously, it doesn't, as I said, want solicitations, for whatever reason to interfere with work. Second, I'm sure it wants only reputable companies and organizaitons to make presentations to its employees. Third, I am sure that a company doesn't want any organization or company associated with any controversial or undesirable element or group to have direct access to employees or to its premises. Finally, I'm sure the employer wants control simply so that it can have some reasonable positions in trying to control unionziation activities, if they begin to occur, by showing what the company does in control other soliciting organziations (of course, unions, may have some greater access rights, but still a company does have the right to prevent interference with work during solicitation, for example).

In terms of what the legal implications are of a company permitting another company to solicit business on its premises, you probably should have the labor lawyers with HR Hero respond to that. From my own exeriences, most employes don't think either postively or negatively about their emplyers based upon the solicitations that are occurring since they are controlled, probably both to the amouunt (how many and how often) and nature (which organizaitons).

System

I may be wrong, but I believe that if you allow solicitations of any kind, you would also be required to allow solicitations for unionization. There are only a few charitable solicitations that are allowed by the NLRB as okay (i.e. blood drives, United Way, etc.).

If you find any information contrary to this, please let me know.

System

I think the problem may be in what the action is described. For example, the employer can link up with several insurance companies to provide coverage plan for their emplyees that the employees may want to choose from as part of a fringe benefit pacakge. Each of those could make presentations. In addition, as noted, there are charity drives. Those, even if conducted by employees, I would still put under the concept of solicitaion, as long as there is active attempts to obtain the employees money or time or effort or other value on behalf of the charity. Finally, as noted earlier, then there may be just "benes" and other things that the company will link up to, such as movie ticket palns and other discount plans, because it's a nice thing to do for employees.. While those may not take on active solicitation, the fact is that there is still some company and employee (employee who is responsible for controlling material) time and effort involved.

System

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 11-15-01 AT 01:03PM (CST)[/font][p]Maybe you could translate your solicition policy into simple English and have this supervisor's boss sign it and give it to him. I'd suggest something like "Absolutely positively no solicitations of any kind whatsoever unless you have prior written approval from HR. No cookies, no wrapping paper, no charity, no political causes, no discounts, NO NUTHIN'!"

Here are some links for information if you need to convince the supervisor's boss. But I wouldn't waste any more breath reasoning with the supervisor.

[url]http://www.hrhero.com/q&a/union.shtml[/url]
[url]http://www.hrhero.com/q&a/fundraising.shtml[/url]

James Sokolowski
Senior Editor
M. Lee Smith Publishers