Chapter 8
Administrative Issues
Copyright © 2009 Cengage Learning.
All rights reserved.
PowerPoint Presentation by Charlie Cook
The University of West Alabama
Administrative Issues
Job Security and
Seniority
Technological
Change
Accommodating
Disabilities
Safety and
Health
© 2008 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Contract
Negotiations
and
Administration
Employee
Training
Work
Restructuring
8–2
Technological Change and Job Protection
• Technological Change
 Involves the introduction of labor-saving machinery.
 Produces changes in material handling and work flow.
 Is a nonmandatory bargaining issue.
• Automation
 Machines and automatic controls displace humans
who formerly did the same work.
 Alters job characteristics and required skills.
© 2008 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–3
Phases of Technological Change
Development
Phase
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Resource
Allocation
Phase
Implementation
Phase
8–4
Phases of Technological Change
• Development Phase
 Choices are made about the design and configuration
of the new technology.
• Resource Allocation Phase
 Organizational units’ claims for resources are
evaluated.
• Implementation Phase
 The new technology is constructed, put in service,
and modified if necessary.
© 2008 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–5
How Unions Protect Job Interests from the
Effects of Technological Change
• Negotiating contract language.
• Lobbying for or against government regulation
and assistance programs.
• Providing direct services to members to assist
them in adjusting to or coping with change.
• Becoming voluntarily involved in the technology
selection process.
 High Performance Work Organization (HPWO)

Saves and creates jobs and is globally competitive
© 2008 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–6
Positive Effects of Technological Change
• Higher productivity that produces greater wealth
with less effort
• The elimination of menial and dangerous jobs
• Higher wages and better working conditions
• Shorter hours
• Increased skill levels that increase pay and
result in a higher standard of living
© 2008 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–7
Negative Effects of Technological Change
• Elimination and deskilling of jobs that lowers pay
and reduces job security
• Displaces intellectual skills of human operators
• Incurs higher capital investment requirements
• Increased productivity results in market
oversupply, causing product prices to decrease
• Increases the capability for monitoring employee
activities and performance
© 2008 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–8
Job Security and Personnel Changes
Job Content
Job Assignment
Job Security
Work Rules
Training
Wages
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Working Hours
Seniority
8–9
Plant Closures, Downsizing, and WARN
• Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification
Act (WARN) of 1988
 Covers employers with 100 or more employees.
 Requires 60 days’ advance notice of plant closing or
major layoff involving one-third of the workforce.
 Exempts firms in financial collapse and unforeseen
operational difficulties.
 Has no designated agency to enforce the act;
employees and unions must sue their employer to
recover damages.
© 2008 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–10
Alternatives to Layoffs
•
•
•
•
•
•
Voluntary leave
Early retirement
Working hours reduction
Rotating layoffs
Work relocation
Work sharing
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•
•
•
•
•
•
Pay freezes
Pay cuts
Work rule changes
New products
Normal attrition
Hiring freezes
8–11
Subcontracting, Outsourcing, and Work Transfer
• Subcontracting
 Contracting work to an outside vendor when the employer
cannot do all or part of the work or when the vendor can do the
work at a lower cost.
• Outsourcing
 Contracting work that the employer does not do to an outside
vendor to reduce costs.
• Offshoring
 Movement of work from a company location within the United
States to locations outside of the United States
• Work Transfer/Relocation
 Moving work to another facility or location.
© 2008 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–12
Subcontracting and the LMRA
• Subcontracting is 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.
© 2008 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–13
Subcontracting and Arbitration
• Factors in Management’s Right to Subcontract:
 Presence and clarity of labor contract language
concerning management’s subcontracting rights
 Established past subcontracting practices
 History of prior subcontracting negotiations
 The intended duration of the subcontracting decision
 Employer’s business justification for subcontracting
 Evidence of union animus in the subcontracting
decision
© 2008 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–14
Work Relocation
• Employers do not have a duty to bargain over
relocated work if:
 Performance of the relocated work is significantly
different from the previous location.
 Labor costs were not a factor in relocating the work.
 The union could not have offered significant labor
cost concessions to affect the relocation decision.
• Duty to bargain over the effects of work
relocation
 Transfer rights, severance pay, pension rights
© 2008 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–15
Work Assignments and Jurisdiction
• Jurisdictional Disputes Occur When:
 Two or more unions representing different bargaining
units claim work for their members.
 Workers claim work that should be rightfully theirs has
been assigned outside the bargaining unit.
 Workers within the bargaining unit disagree among
themselves over work assignment.
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8–16
Exhibit 8.1
Example of a Work Jurisdiction Clause
It is the Intent of the parties to this agreement to protect the work performed by employees
in the bargaining unit.
The employer recognizes that it is Important and desirable to use Its own equipment and
drivers to the greatest extent possible before using subhaulers and/or noncompany trucks.
The union recognizes that under certain conditions, such as those dictated by customer
demands, equipment requirements, daily dispatch determinations, materials to be handled
and similar factors, that subhaulers and/or noncompany trucks are necessary and have
been so used throughout the Industry for many years.
The employer, in accordance with the above, must however, determine the number, type
and location of Its working equipment in conformity with its business requirements. The
employer further must be able to determine, in keeping with sound business practices, the
extent to which It will replace equipment that Is too costly to operate, obsolete, or
damaged.
Under these condition the employer agrees the subhaulers and/or noncompany trucks will
not be used as a subterfuge to defeat the protection of the bargaining unit work.
In keeping with the above, the union recognizes that the employer will use such subhauier
and/or noncompany trucks as required by location and classification only after all the
available company trucks at such locations and in similar classifications have been initially
dispatched.
© 2008 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–17
Jurisdictional Disputes and the NLRB
• Factors considered by the NLRB in resolving
jurisdictional disputes:
 Skills and work experience required to perform the
work
 Union certifications already awarded by the NLRB
 Industry and local practices
 Prior arbitration decisions
 The employer’s desires
 Cost effectiveness and efficiency in assigning the
work to a particular unit or craft
© 2008 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–18
Work Scheduling
• Flextime
 Allows an employee to start and finish work at his or
her discretion, as long as the specified total number
of hours per week or per day are worked and the
employee is present at work during a core-hour
period.
• Compressed Workweek
 Consists of four 10-hour work days with three days off
each week or eight 9-hour days and one 8-hour day
permitting one extra day off every two weeks.
© 2008 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–19
Seniority and Personnel Changes
• Seniority
 An employee’s continuous service with the firm.
An objective measure that is readily determined.
 Possessed by all employees covered by the contract.

 Used to apportion out rights unrelated to job
performance:
Benefit rights: eligibility for and scheduling of vacation time
 Job rights: bidding on jobs, layoffs, shift preferences,
bumping during layoffs

 Superseniority

Protects certain union officials from layoff to assure continuity
in the functioning of the union.
© 2008 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–20
Legal Issues Involving Seniority
• Supreme Court Decisions
 Bona fide (lawful) seniority systems are permitted.
 Employees can be awarded retroactive seniority as a
remedy for past discriminatory practices.
 The use of seniority in layoffs is permitted where the
layoff may or does adversely impact minorities.
 Reverse discrimination claims are not valid if the
affirmative action plan:

Is a negotiated settlement between the union and employer.

Does not harm majority employees (loss of jobs).

Doesn’t exclude majority employees from advancement
opportunities.
© 2008 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–21
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
© 2008 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–22
Work Restructuring
• Work Restructuring Programs
 Employee involvement
 Worker participation
 Cross-training
 Multiskilling
 Self-managed work teams
• Benefits of Innovative Practices
 Increased energy, creativity, and dignity for
employees
 Increase profits for employers
© 2008 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–23
Safety and Health
• Factors prompting the inclusion of safety and
health clauses in labor agreements:
 The standards and provisions of the Occupational
Safety and Health Act (OSHA) of 1970
 Emergence of new biological, ergonomic, and
chemical hazards in the workplace
 Rising health-care treatment costs
 Increases in legal claims by injured workers
© 2008 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–24
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
• Reasonable Accommodation
 Requires employers to make adjustments to job for
qualified persons with disabilities who can carry out
the essential functions of the job.
 Cannot conflict with other employees’ seniority rights.
 Does not require the lowering of behavior or
performance standards.
• Persons With Disabilities Defined
 Having an impairment limiting major life functions.
 Having a record of impairment.
 Being regarded as having an impairment.
© 2008 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–25
Key Terms
• Technological change
• Automation
• High performance work
organization (HPWO)
• Deskilling
• Job security
• Featherbedding
• Worker Adjustment and
Retraining Notification Act
(WARN)
• Subcontracting
• Outsourcing
• Offshoring
• Jurisdictional disputes
• Flextime
© 2008 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Compressed workweek
Seniority
Benefit rights
Competitive job rights
Bumping rights
Superseniority
Work sharing
Work restructuring
Occupational Safety and
Health Act (OSHA)
• Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA)
• Person with disabilities
• Reasonable accommodation
8–26