Administrative Issues

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Chapter 8

• Administrative Issues

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Administrative Issues
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Technology and Job Protection

• Technological Change
• Involves the introduction of labor-saving
  machinery
• Is a non-mandatory bargaining issue
• Automation
• Machines and automatic controls displace humans
  who formerly did the same work.
• Alters job characteristics and required skills

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The Unions Role

• Negotiate contract language
• Lobby for or against government regulation and
  assistance programs
• Provide direct services to members to assist them
  in adjusting to or coping with change
• Become voluntarily involved in the technology
  selection process

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Technological Change

• Pros
• Higher productivity
• The elimination of menial and dangerous jobs
• Higher wages and better working conditions
• Shorter hours
• Increased skill levels

• Cons
• Elimination and deskilling of jobs
• Displaces intellectual skills
• Higher capital investment
• Market oversupply
• Increases the capability for monitoring

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Job Security and Personnel Changes
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WARN Act of 1988

• Covers employers with 100 or more employees
• Requires 60 days advance notice of plant closing
  or major layoff
• Exempts firms in financial collapse and
  unforeseen operational difficulties
• Employees and unions must sue their employer to
  recover damages

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Subcontracting/Outsourcing

• Contracting work to an outside vendor
• Not a mandatory bargaining issue when
• It is motivated solely by economic conditions
• It is a common method of business in the industry
• It follows previous similar subcontracting
  practices
• It has no adverse impact on current
  bargaining-unit employees
• The union has been given the opportunity to
  bargain over changes in subcontracting practices

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Managements Right to Subcontract

• Presence and clarity of labor contract language
• Established past subcontracting practices
• History of prior subcontracting negotiations
• The intended duration of the decision
• Employers business justification
• Evidence of union animus in the subcontracting
  decision

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Work Relocation

• Employers not obligated to bargain if
• Performance is significantly different from the
  previous location
• Labor costs were not a factor in decision
• The union could not have offered significant
  labor cost concessions
• Duty to bargain over the effects
• Transfer rights, severance pay, pension rights

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Jurisdictional Disputes

• Two or more unions representing different
  bargaining units claim work
• Workers claim work that should be rightfully
  their work has been assigned outside the
  bargaining unit
• Workers within the bargaining unit disagree over
  work assignment

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Seniority and Personnel Changes

• An employees continuous service with the firm.
• Used to apportion out rights unrelated to job
  performance
• Super-seniority

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Legal Issues Involving Seniority

• Bona fide seniority systems are permitted
• Can be awarded retroactively
• Permitted in layoffs where the layoff may or does
  adversely impact minorities
• Reverse discrimination claims are invalid if the
  affirmative action plan
• Is a negotiated settlement between the union and
  employer
• Does not harm majority employees

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Alternatives to Layoffs

• Pay freezes
• Pay cuts
• Work rule changes
• New products
• Normal attrition
• Hiring freezes

• Voluntary leave
• Early retirement
• Working hours reduction
• Rotating layoffs
• Work relocation
• Work sharing

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Types of Employee Training

• Formal Programs
• Apprenticeships
• New employee orientation
• Safety and health
• Basic skills
• Job-specific skills
• Workplace practices
• Informal Training
• On-the-job
• Mentoring

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Work Restructuring

• Employee involvement
• Worker participation
• Cross-training
• Multiskilling
• Self-managed work teams

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Safety and Health

• Factors prompting the inclusion in labor
  agreements
• The standards and provisions of OSHA
• Emergence of new biological, ergonomic, and
  chemical hazards in the workplace
• Rising health-care treatment costs
• Increases in legal claims by injured workers

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ADA

• Reasonable Accommodation
• Requires employers to make adjustments to job for
  qualified persons
• Cannot conflict with other employees seniority
  rights
• Does not require the lowering of behavior or
  performance standards