Understanding Equal Opportunity and the Legal Environment
Discrimination claims are always difficult for companies. (Gomez-Mejia, L.R., Balkin, D.B. and Cardy, R.L. , 110)
Tattoos and companies are one of the most known problems in this field. Companies have policies banning them or obliging employees to hide their visible ones while working.
Some things companies CAN’T do is for example, ordering women to wear make-up since law should forbidd discrimination based on physical appearance. And it’s not only about make up, it also applies for the clothes you wear (Always in a range of what is appropiate in an office for example). That’s why appearance policies have to be fair for both genders or it can lead to many problems.
That’s why understanding legal environment in HR is important.
Legal compliance
Although people may or may not agree with the law, following it is a the right thing to do. This apply for laws like, people from both gender must receive the same pay for the same job, not discriminating by disability or other laws.
But there are some limitations for HR and legal Departments, HR has to keep a record of everything, implement good HR policies and monitor their decisions and their employee’s decisions. However, a bad decision like giving someone who has been performing badly, a good grade in their evaluation. Can lead into the imposibility of firing them since the “data” shows he had good performance. One of the key things the legal departments have to deal in this cases is to limit the damage to the company.
HR has lots of responsability in their job since one mistake, any kind of discrimination can lead into court awards from 50.000€ to 300.000€, and some individual cases can lead into millions of dollars payed in terms of court awards and legal costs.
HR laws are like other laws, very complex, that’s why managers should be able to understand the basic intention of al laws without too much difficulty. (Gomez-Mejia, L.R., Balkin, D.B. and Cardy, R.L. , 113)
Almost everyone who applies for a job in EEUU falls into a protected class. That’s why HR has to be very careful when making any decision with them since every action against an employee could lead into being challenged in a court of law. That’s why there are some practices recommended for management.
Providing training, regular focused training sessions conducted by the HR departmenr are the most efficient method of communicating this information to managers. (Gomez-Mejia, L.R., Balkin, D.B. and Cardy, R.L. , 114)
Establish a Complaint Resolution Process, knowing which are the steps followed in case an employee filles a report against the company for any action taken against them.
Document decisions, reporting each decision made inside the company will prove and rationalise their decisions when showing it to court.
Being honest and asking only information you need to know, like not asking about their private life, sexual life, or if they have any pyshical condition if they are going to do an office job.
Working with Organized Labor
One of the biggest challenges managers face is when their employees decide to use their right to strike. If employees unite in a Union, companies must have a good relationship with the union to be able to run their business since employees are the key of the company.
A union is an orgnaization that represents employees’ interests to management on such issues as wages, work hours and working conditions. (Gomez-Mejia, L.R., Balkin, D.B. and Cardy, R.L. , 493)
Employees join unions for different reasons, mainly because they believe in social justice, fighting against management 1 by 1 is way harder and financially imposible. But uniting they can share and minimize the legal costs in this matter.
Companies usually have a labor relations specialist. Someone who is knowledgeable about labor relations and can represent management’s interests to a union. (Gomez-Mejia, L.R., Balkin, D.B. and Cardy, R.L. , 494)
Unions have achieved a lot for employees over history. Things like 10 hour shifts, 8 hour shifts, breaks, pensions, sick leave, paid holidays and more wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t because employees united to get them.
In 1947, USA enacted th Taft-Hartley Act that limited their power protecting the rights of management.
In 1959, The Landrum-Griffin Act protected union members and their participation in union affairs.
Unions around the world are structured by type of job. Restauration workers have their unions, different industrial sectors have their unions, even policemen have their unions. They all have their own rules and have previously negotiated conditions with employers so everyone gets the same conditions when working in those types of jobs.
Companies have to decide which strategy they will follow in order to deal with unions.
-Union acceptance strategy, management chooses to view the union as its employee’s legitimate representative and accepts collective bargaining as an appropriate mechanism for establishing workplace rules.
-Union avoidance strategy, management tries to prevent its employees from joining a union, either by removing the incentive to unionize or by using hardball tactics.
-Union Suppresion strategy, management uses hardball tactics to prevent a union from organizing its workers or to get rid of a union.
(Gomez-Mejia, L.R., Balkin, D.B. and Cardy, R.L. , 505-506)
House OKs ban on unions for university faculty
South Dakota House on February 2020 passed a proposal to get rid of the faculty’s union of the public universities.
This means the dissolution of the faculty union is inevitable. This union had 1400 members across six universities. The union says it will threaten their academic freedom.
This law was proposed by Republican lawmakers, using as an excuse that universities need to adapt their tight budgets.
Basically they did this because the university wanted to hire “professors of practice”- teachers who do not have advanced degrees but bring work experience to university classrooms.
This makes universities look more like business than real educational centers.
(Pierre, S.D. March,2020)
How Amazon is fighting back against workers’ increasing efforts to unionize
Amazon in it’s 25 years history has had big history with employees trying to unize but no success. Amazon has more than 650000 worldwide employees. There’s been recently protests by employees. “The people who participated in today’s event are mainly outside organizers who are uninformed about what it’s really like to work inside an Amazon fulfillment center” Amazon spokeperson Rachael Lighty.
Amazon raised their minimum wage to 15$ an hour and it’s known for generous benefits.
“We’re already offering what unions are asking, which is industry leading pay, great benefits and a safe and innovative workplace” Lighty said.
In Europe, unions have a stronger foothold, Amazon workers also remain nonunion. But workers there have been more active, staging protests during sales days for years.
In Spain or in Germany workers decided to strike in Prime Days, one of the days where Amazon makes the most sales during the year.
Again, Lighty said: “Amazon respects the rights of our employees, and we have a zero tolerance policy on retaliation for employees raising their concerns.”
Then why don’t let them unionize? Is it because they are scared they will make a few millions less by paying proper salaries to their employees?
(Schoolov K., August 2019.)
References
House OKs ban on unions for university faculty. Pierre S.D. 2020 URL: https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/business/article240855666.html Accesed: 03/03/2020
How Amazon is fighting back against workers’ increasing efforts to unionize Schoolov K. 2019 URL: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/22/how-amazon-is-fighting-back-against-workers-efforts-to-unionize.html Accesed: 04/03/2020
Managing Human Resources. Global Edition 8/E. Pearson. Gomez-Mejia, L.R., Balkin, D.B. and Cardy, R.L. 2016
Guillem's Basics of Human Resource Management 