HELP - ASAP - politics and business
Leslie
1,729 Posts
The company I work for has a vested interest in seeing that a referendum in one of the surrounding cities attains the number of registered voter signatures required. Many of our employees - 36 percent - live in that city, as do I. The GM would like us to set up a table so proponents of the referendum can capture signatures from employees. I am personally against the referendum, and think there is something very intimidating about having that petition being hawked on company property. What if the GM is standing around when I refuse to sign? So I'm thinking - are we on shakey ground here?
Comments
John Phillips
[email]jphillips@millermartin.com[/email]
Also, while your employer's position on the referendum may not be popular with some of your company's employees, the employer probably has the right to set up the table, at least under federal law. If the matter is employer sponsored, as opposed to employee or some outside group sponsored, then also there probably is not an issue with the employer allowing one organization to collect signatures from employees while disallowing a union to do so if that ever came up. However, if the employer simply allows an outside organization to set up the table to collect signatures, then it could pose a problem if a union ever wanted to do so. The union would argue that your company disparately enforced its solicitation policy to allow one outside organization to solicit signatures, but didn't allow the union. That could constitute an unfair labor practice. I also think it is generally not a good employer/employee relations practice for an employer to get involved in pushing outside political philosophies with its employees.
David C. Hagaman
[email]dhagaman@fordharrison.com[/email]