Plant Manager advising employees they could not go to the H. R. Office

bebebushee

This question seems to be a complicated one that I need help on. I have a plant manager that has been working for my company for approximately 14 years. He has advised all employees in the plant that they can come into the H. R. Office if they need to or even if I call them, but he has to know when they are going and why. He has also told them that they are not allowed to come into my office until their lunch time or after working hours. Is this legal?? Please help.
What does the law say about employees and the human resource office??

Thanks for the help

Bebe Busehee
Chungs Gourmet Foods
[email]bbushee@chungsfoods.com[/email]

Rockie

Sounds like someone with rampant paranoia!

Don D

Sure, it's legal. It's also stupid. Here I go again, and I've never met the man, but, I think it's a classic case of turfism and his perceived 'ownership' of employees and what they do while at work. He is exhibiting some pretty extreme feelings of inadequacy if he is intimidated by the fact that one of 'HIS' employees might be interracting with Human Resources. Not knowing the culture where you work, that will be the key. If management there lets this guy issue such directives and he's done it for 14 years, you'll have a struggle. On the other hand, working currently in a manufacturing environment, I know how critical it is for floor supervisors and managers to have equipment manned and know who is off the floor and when they will return. Nobody leaves their equipment here without permission from a supervisor. If anybody needs to see H.R. a supervisor alerts me and we work it out. Sometimes the visit is immediate, sometimes scheduled later. Never would I work within a policy that limited their interraction with me to breaks, lunch, etc. That is not work time and a visit with me IS worktime, for them and for me. Methinks this guy is afraid of you and some spotlights you may point in his direction.

Crout

There is no specific law that I am aware of that guarentees the right to see an HR person. However, the Plant Manager is being more than a little controlling with this stance. There are also other things to consider here. What if the Plant Manager is sexually harrassing one of the employees? The nature of what we do in HR means that employees should have access. By that I don't mean the ability to drop everything and dash off to HR without notice, but what your Plant Manager is demanding seems a little too restrictive.

Gillian

I agree with all. The stance of the Plant Manager takes away from your ability to do your job. An approach that I have used occasionally with similar situations is to use the analogy of a safety valve. Our job is like that - we can diffuse situations before they become big problems bu being available to employees and sometimes the situations are confidential. That is good for the business, HR and the Plant Manager.

Theresa Gegen TX

I do think that you need to talk to the Plant manager to find out the true story and help address his concerns. The plant manager may have some very valid concerns about employees leaving their work area without letting people know where they are going. And I'll just bet some of the employees are abusing the privilege and leaving work undone. The plant manager probably also wants the employees to use the chain of command to try to resolve issues first (before bringing in HR). None of this is bad. But when it gets communicated to employees, who are used to coming and going as they please, they make it sound like its bad.

I would talk to the plant manager and get his side of the story before making any conclusions.

Good Luck!!