Recourse

pecohr

We have an ee (now former) that was recently terminated for cause based on wording in her/our CBA. She has filed grieviences listing just about every article (really) in the CBA. This employee has had well documented behaviorial issues through out her employment and we are not inclined to consider reemployment as an option.

My question is; she is obviously retaliating and making baseless grieviences to cause our company to waste both $$$'s and time in our effort to defend our termination of her employment. What have you done in similar situations to reduce or eliminate this issue both now and in the future?

Thanks,
Stuart

Down_the_Middle

I have two (2) suggestions; neither of which have ever been highly valued by the labor union: 1) involve the union rep and obtain their assistance in lobbying the employee to use a more reasonable approach; or 2) effectively negotiate language in the CBA that provides for a summary review when frivolous grievances are submitted. Good luck...........

Don D

In order to reduce the instances of exactly what you are encountering, during our last negotiations, the company added the later ratified language: "...violated an express provision of this contract." and "The grievance will state the name(s) of the concerned member(s) of the bargaining unit as well as the name(s) of Company staff concerned. The grievance shall state which Article and Section of the Contract are alleged to have been violated and the corrective action desired." Before adding this, we had a runaway train of endless, baseless, ill-defined grievances, that have almost ceased now. I've also read lately some cases where the NLRB judge or arbitrator has dismissed some of the more obviously harassing and repetitive types of grievances.

pecohr

Don & Down the Middle,
I appreciate your input and I'm making notes to utilize for the next contract negotiations (not to distant future).

Let me ask you and any others with appropriate knowledge and experience. What items did you either add or attempt to have added to your CBA that had a signifigant positive impact on attendance and productivity issues?

Thank you again,
Stuart

p.s. Don, I alway enjoy reading your responses and mostly I agree with them or take away something new and useful! Thanks

Don D

I suggest that insofar as possible you should not include your attendance policy and work rules in the contract itself. That makes it almost impossible for the company to exercise its management right to change or alter them at the company's discretion. And a strong Managements Rights Clause will do this for you. Once you get them into the contract, they are concrete waiting to set-up. We have a strictly enforced attendance points system separate from the contract and it not negotiable and we can change it unilaterally. The union tried unsuccessfully last February to get us to understand the wisdom of their suggestion that the rules and attendance policy could more easily be followed if we would just go ahead and put it all in the contract. The wisdom was lost on the company representatives and we 'passed up the opportunity to fall for that'. The rules and policy are posted on all bulletin boards and are given to each employee upon hire and annually but never inserted into the contract. I don't know if this will be helpful - but, just a word of caution.

pecohr

To late:-( for us, but definite words of wisdom to others out there that haven't fallen into this very deep well...

My predecessors fell for the line. We have a no fault attendance policy in place but you have to miss a lot of time to get to a termination point. I do thank you for those words of wisdom and look forward to more.

Down_the_Middle

pecohr:

I took a different approach with the union and negotiated a specific attendance policy that was no-fault and had progressive steps that lead to discipline/discharge. I believed this approach was preferred becuz it substantially reduced the number of smoke screen grievances and the bargaining group clearly understood the rules. We also had a broad mgt rights clause than enabled us to use other approaches to strengthen the attendance piece when deemed necessary. It helped smooth out the CBA and established a firm foundation for our position on attendance/tardiness. This worked very well for me and so I offer it for what it may be worth!!! Good luck.

ritaanz

Don, how right you are. Having inherited a contract with the attendance policy in the contract, it was impossible to get a handle on absenteeism. There was no way the union would negotiate to have it removed or even to have it amended.