How would you handle this?

LindaS

This morning I was walking through the plant and found one of our employees, who also happens to be the union president, sitting at his machine reading a magazine. We have a policy stating that employees are not allowed to read at their machines and he has been verbally warned several times about this but as an added problem, the magazine he was reading is Playboy! Previously he had been warne by the Manufacturing Director about not having this type of material in the plant after the director saw it on his tool cart and told him to get rid of it so this makes the second time this has happened.

I feel something stronger than a verbal warning should be given but am not sure how far to go. Any thoughts?

scottorr

I would say that the verbal warnings have not worked. Do you have a disciplinary action clause in your union contract? If not, minimum I would suspend this ee. Let him know that this is a seriouse offense. I'm sure there will be a grievence filed but this appears to be a clear cut case of policy violation.

And Playboy, that is asking for a sexual harassment claim. We had one of our attornies tell us that in a recent case a male ee won his sexual harassment case in-part because several of the women in his office had fashion magazines that displayed sexually explicite wording such as "How to please a man in bed".

Balloonman

You have to follow what your contract says, however since you have two violations both significant I agree and would suspend him. Now I guarentee you will have a grievance filed, no biggie. Good chance to sit down with the business agent and discuss the behavior of the union president. Of course you would have to be willing to suspend other employees for a similar issue. I would go with a 3 day suspension, once the grievance is filed, get the business agent in quickly to meet over this so you can have the ability of making it a shorter suspension as your fall back.
My $0.02 worth.
DJ The Balloonman

Whatever

I am concerned that he had been "verbally" warned several times. Reading a magazine while running a machine is operating is considered a safety violation in my plant. Offensive material is clearly off limits. He should have gotten and written warning and then a suspension so that a paper trail existed. I would start creating the paper trail immediately.

Pork

FIRE THE SUCKER AND DEFEND THE GRIEVENCE TO THE HILLS!

THIS IS THE VERY REASON NAFTA IS SO POWERFUL, IT IS A WAY OF GETTING RID OF THE ROPE AROUND MANUFACTORING'S NECKS!!! God did not put unions on this earth, we weak mannered managers and our all powerful legal systems did.

THE UNION PRESIDENT IS NOT THE REPRESENTATIVE OF YOUR WORK FORCE, HE IS A SELF CENTERED, BULLY THAT IS WILLING TO STICK HIS FINGER UP YOUR NOSE, AND HOLLOW WOLF.

HAVE A HAPPY DAY! PORK

LindaS

Thanks for all your advice and here's an update...

After speaking with the Production Manager, he felt a three-day suspension was too harsh and decided a formal written warning was more justified. We presented him with a written warning and he threatened to contact the NLRB regarding the fact that we are enforcing a "change" in policy without talking with the union first (the reading while tending a machine). When I explained that the policy (which went into affect back in October) was not a "change" but rather a formal written stance on a practice that was not allowed in the first place, not to mention a safety, quality and production issue, he informed me that there was a "past practice" of allowing this. The "past practice" was employees reading as long as a supervisor wasn't around and putting the material away when a management person came around the corner. We'll see what happens on that issue but I have a feeling he is really going to push the policy to the point of termination and we will be forced to spend the time and money defending our decision through the grievance process.

Don't you just love some union mentalities?

Pork

THE ANSWER IS NO, NO, & MORE NOs!!! We HRs are the UNION where none exsist; it is when we stop doing our professional job of EMPLOYEE RELATIONS, that the organization that has done good in the start to make us wake up to the personal needs of the corporate body in our working world turns bad in later days. Given time, they soon start to showing their true being of an organization which must have a continuous flow of income from members so that the upper levels of UNION LEADERSHIP can have lots of benefits. Yours reads like they have reached the end of their value on behalf of the EMPLOYEES. The employees see, watch, and understand better the companies' actions to treat everyone equal. If the UNION President or whatever leader gets away with something, then the pattern of and strength of the organization from whom they receive their pay check with an employee deduction for membership dues, is revealed to all.

YOUR DEFENSE AND BACKBONE IS CRITICAL to a decertification effort. Once you can prove to the employees that the HR can better represent them within the company and that the company is in charge and will not allow any employee violate the working rules established by the company, then the company has set up the fist link in a successful decertification action.

May you have a Blessed day, regardless of the daily pressures!

PORK

Balloonman

Linda,
First off my condolensces for having a production mgr. that is lacking a pair. As you can see the written warning is turning into a battle, he would have been better off having the same fight by sitting him at home, and being able to bring him back with just a written warning. Of course some of my union experience is in a meat plant where how shall I say this, being gentle was not the normal course of action. However in every plant I have worked in, union or not, we would have suspended.
My $0.02 worth.
DJ The Balloonman

SDDCHR

I have to go with Pork and Balloonman on this one. But unfortunately, it sounds like the precedence has been set. Always, from day one, follow your policy. And as stated, initiate the paper trail. This may cost you time and money but oh well....isn't that what we expect in our role? Good Luck!