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Chapter 11 Complying with Workplace Justice Laws. Chapter Outline. 11-1 Gaining Competitive Advantage 11-2 HRM Issues and Practices 11-3 The Manager’s Guide. 11-1a Opening Case: Gaining Competitive Advantage at the Marriott.
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Chapter Outline • 11-1 Gaining Competitive Advantage • 11-2 HRM Issues and Practices • 11-3 The Manager’s Guide
11-1a Opening Case: Gaining Competitive Advantage at the Marriott • Problem: Marriott’s open-door policy fails to resolve employee complaints. • Solution: Implement a peer review process. • How the peer review process enhanced competitive advantage • Number of EEO charges dropped by 50 percent in the first year and by 83 percent in the second. • Litigation costs reduced, yielding enormous savings. • Employee morale improved dramatically as they had a complaint system they trusted.
11-1b Linking Workplace Justice to Competitive Advantage • Workplace justice laws deal with the fairness of organizational practices that dictate the day-to-day treatment of employees. • Competitive advantage can come from: • Reducing litigation costs. • Favorably affecting employee attitudes and behaviors. • Promoting a favorable company image.
11-2a Workplace Justice and Employment Discrimination • Discrimination in the day-to-day treatment of employees: • Sexual harassment • Pregnancy discrimination • Family and medical leave • Fetal protection policies • Discharge and discrimination • Layoffs and discrimination • Early retirement and discrimination
11-2a Workplace Justice and Employment Discrimination (cont.) • Problems caused by sexual harassment • Increase in employee turnover • Increase in absenteeism • Decrease in employee morale • Lack of effective teamwork • Poor productivity • Employee stress and/or psychological problems • Costly compensation damages
11-2a Workplace Justice and Employment Discrimination (cont.) • Forms of sexual harassment • Quid pro quo • Refers to a situation in which an employee or applicant must provide sexual favors in order to be hired, promoted, granted a pay raise, or allowed to keep a job. • Hostile environment • Employees are subjected to unwelcome, intimidating working conditions. • Reverse sexual harassment • Occurs when person is denied an employment opportunity that was given to someone who complied with requests for sexual favors.
11-2a Workplace Justice and Employment Discrimination (cont.) • Steps an employer should take for dealing with sexual harassment: • Establish a written sexual harassment policy. • Provide supervisory training that focuses on the legal definition of sexual harassment. • Establish investigative guidelines that maintain employee confidentiality. • Establish a committee composed of both men and women to investigate sexual harassment claims. • Establish a means for detecting unreported cases of sexual harassment within the company.
11-2a Workplace Justice and Employment Discrimination (cont.) • Pregnancy Discrimination Act • Pregnancy discrimination is a form of sexual discrimination and therefore illegal. • Firms may not discriminate against employees on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. • Employees who are unable to perform their jobs adequately because of a pregnancy-related condition must be treated similar to employees who are temporarily disabled for other reasons.
11-2a Workplace Justice and Employment Discrimination (cont.) • Fetal Protection Policies (FPPs) • Exclude women of childbearing age from jobs that could cause potential reproductive hazards. • Examples—Jobs involving toxins and those that can cause sterility, infertility, sperm abnormality, stillbirth, miscarriage, birth defects, or damage to sexual organs. • Women are exempt only if they can show proof of surgical sterilization.
11-2a Workplace Justice and Employment Discrimination (cont.) • Guidelines for dealing with fetal protection policies: • Support federal research on reproductive risks. • Estimate the extent of health risk for the firm’s employees. • Fully inform employees about health risks. • Consider technological controls. • Reduce employee exposure to toxic substances. • Implement a fetal protection policy.
11-2a Workplace Justice and Employment Discrimination (cont.) • Discharge and discrimination • Employee misconduct occurs when an employee commits an infraction of workplace rules. • Firms must implement discipline and discharge policies for ensuring fair enforcement of those rules. • Just cause : The cause of action should be a fair one. • Due process: Employees should be informed of the charges against them and be given an opportunity to defend themselves. • Progressive discipline system: Discipline is enforced in increasingly severe steps; starting with an oral warning and ultimately termination.
11-2a Workplace Justice and Employment Discrimination (cont.) • Discharge and discrimination—Poor performance • Discharge is usually considered a last resort. • Employer must be able to prove that the discharge was performance-based. • If required, employer must provide other evidences such as adequate documentation of poor performance or efforts taken by manager to improve substandard performance by providing counseling,
11-2a Workplace Justice and Employment Discrimination (cont.) • Layoffs and discrimination • Employers can defend themselves by: • Demonstrating that the layoff was not simply a guise for discrimination, but was based on genuine business concerns. • Providing evidences of lagging sales, growing inventory, or a depressed economy. • Providing evidences of consideration to options such as transferring employees into vacant positions, placing them in newly created part-time positions, or allowing them to work a shorter workweek. • Claims of discrimination can also be refuted by statistical evidence.
11-2b Employee Privacy Rights • Intrusions on an employee’s privacy can cause: • Resentment • A climate of fear and suspicion • Low morale • Increased turnover • Increased absenteeism • Reduced productivity • Expensive lawsuits
11-2b Employee Privacy Rights (cont.) • Four privacy-related practices that are legally regulated: • Information collection and use • Search • Surveillance and monitoring • Enactment of workplace rules
11-2b Employee Privacy Rights (cont.) • Information collection and use • Employers have a right to collect and maintain information about employees. • Employees may justifiably lodge an invasion of privacy claim if the information collected by an employer is irrelevant to the employer’s business needs. • According to the Privacy Act of 1974, public sector employees have the right to: • Determine what information is being kept on them by their employers. • Review that information and correct erroneous information. • Prevent the information from being used for a purpose other than that for which it was collected.
11-2b Employee Privacy Rights (cont.) • Freedom of Information Act of 1966 • Makes most government records available to the public. • Individuals may view these records with proper authorization. • Makes exceptions for personnel files and medical information. • Private sector employers must ensure that information is given in good faith, no malice is intended, and the receiving party has a legitimate reason for wanting the information.
11-2b Employee Privacy Rights (cont.) • Searches • Organizations conduct searches to prevent theft, detect the presence of alcohol or drugs, or recover stolen property. • Employer’s behavior in this area is regulated by the common law of intrusion upon seclusion. • A person’s privacy rights are violated when the intrusion upon his or her private concerns would be considered highly offensive to a reasonable person.
11-2b Employee Privacy Rights (cont.) • An employer’s search must meet three criteria: • Reasonable basis for conducting the search. • Written guidelines should inform employees of its search policy. • All precautions to ensure the search is not conducted offensively or abusively.
11-2b Employee Privacy Rights (cont.) • Surveillance and monitoring • Methods include: • Monitoring phone calls, e-mail, and Internet use. • Watching employees through closed-circuit televisions. • Using private investigators to watch employees outside the workplace. • Using global positioning systems to track the employees’ locations when using company vehicles and company-provided cell phones. • Such practices degrade employees, may lead to stress, and hinder employee morale.
11-2b Employee Privacy Rights (cont.) • Recommendations for implementing surveillance and monitoring practices • Let employees know that they are subject to surveillance and monitoring. • Explain to the employees why surveillance/monitoring is taking place and how it will be implemented. • Make sure that surveillance/monitoring is conducted for a job-related reason. • Do not monitor restrooms or lounges unless there is a legitimate need to do so. • Let employees participate in developing monitoring and surveillance policies.
11-2b Employee Privacy Rights (cont.) • Workplace rules: • Organizations often impose rules to restrict certain types of employee behaviors such as theft, insubordination, drug use, or horseplay. • Controversial workplace rules: • No smoking rules: instituted for well-being of nonsmoking employees, and financial reasons. • Rules governing romantic relationships: instituted for protecting trade secrets and avoiding appraisal bias; approach taken by public- and private-sector employers vary. • Employee misconduct outside the workplace.
11-2c Wrongful Termination and Employment-at-Will • Employment-at-will • Employers are free to discharge their employees for any reason, even an unfair one, unless the discharge is limited by contract or by federal or state statutes. • Exceptions to the employment-at-will doctrine • The public policy exception: Any doctrine that serves the needs of society; if public policy is violated, society will suffer harm. • The implied contract exception: An unwritten contractual agreement. • The good faith and fair dealing exception: A common law prohibiting discharges that are particularly repugnant or unfair.
11-2c Wrongful Termination and Employment-at-Will (cont.) • Preventing wrongful termination • Avoid making any statements that promise long-term employment. • Include an at-will statement on the application form. • Place a disclaimer in the employee handbook that the document is provided as a matter of information only. • Train interviewers to avoid making comments imply long-term job security. • Ensure that discipline and discharge practices are fair. • Make sure the fairness of any discharge can be proven through documentation.
11-3a Workplace Justice and the Manager’s Job • Line managers: • Communicate workplace policies and procedures. • Create a good work environment. • Deal effectively with possible policy violations.
11-3b How the HRM Department Can Help • HR Professionals: • Implement discipline and discharge policies by conveying the organization’s code of conduct to the employees, and through training programs and employee handbooks. • Develop a conflict resolution mechanism • Open-door policy • Peer review panels • Mediation • Arbitration • Use of an ombudsman • Assist managers with workplace justice-related issues.
11-3c HRM Skill-Building for Managers • Conducting a disciplinary investigation • Get the facts. • Review applicable rules. • Meet with the employee. • Decide what kind of discipline, if any, to recommend. • Provide proper documentation.
11-3c HRM Skill-Building for Managers (cont.) • Investigating claims of sexual harassment • Determine if the alleged behavior has actually occurred. • If you conclude that the alleged behavior has occurred, determine if it could be legally construed as sexual harassment. • Determine the appropriate action to take. • Discipline for sexual harassment should be based on the severity of the behavior.
11-3c HRM Skill-Building for Managers (cont.) • Conducting a disciplinary conference • Get the facts. • Arrange for the interview. • Put the employee at ease. • State the facts of the case. • Ask for reasons. • State the company policy that has been violated. • State the reason for the policy and the possible harm caused by the employee’s violation.
11-3c HRM Skill-Building for Managers (cont.) • Conducting a disciplinary conference (cont.) • Get the worker to agree on the problem. • If disciplinary action is needed, state the action and the reasons for it. • Involve the employee in a problem-solving discussion. • Have the employee summarize the problem and the agreed-on solution. • Agree on a follow-up date. • End the discussion on a positive note.
