Can we do this???

LindaS

We are a union facility and have a new situation as it relates to monthly meetings....

In the past the union held two monthly meetings - one for the 1st shift and one for the 2nd shift (they were both done to allow employees to attend the meetings without missing work).

Due to low attendance at the meetings, the union has decided to combine the meetings and hold only one monthly meeting. Again this was not a problem because the meetings were held after 1st shift and no 2nd shift employees were attending.

I now have a 2nd shift employee who is telling me that she wants to attend the monthly meetings. I have no problem with this except that I expect that she will make up her time so we still get the hours of production from her (we are talking about 1-2 hours per month). I believe we have a right to mandate she makes up her time since it was the union's decision to change the meeting times.

I do not want to get into a situation wherein I have more and more employees attending this meeting, missing time from work and not making it up.

Can we mandate they make up their time and if they don't, the absence then becomes subject to our attendance policy?

davids

Unless your collective bargaining agreement specifically allows the employees attendance with pay at union meetings, I think you can require the employee to make up the time. Of course, you will need to be consistent on how you treat all employees.