Job Security and
Seniority
Jared Thompson
Jasmine Glenn
Melanie Fowler
Video
 https://youtu.be/U5pDsiSjMCA
Job Security
Job security includes
 The rights to remain employed during times of
layoffs
 Rights to promotion opportunities
 A fear hearing in cases involving discipline
 The need to have work performed by employees
within the company rather than subcontracting
or increasing the use of automatic equipment.
Job Security Cont’d
 Industrial Jurisprudence- the system of rules and
regulations that labor and management fashion to
define their specific employment rights and
obligations in the workplace
Seniority
 A seniority system is a set of rules governing the
allocation of economic benefits and opportunities on
the basis of service with one employer.
 Promotion
 Layoff and recall
 Economic benefits
Seniority Cont’d
 The Union may argue in the absence of job seniority
system:
 Will make promotion
 Layoff
 And other decisions solely on the basis of possible
short-run cost savings
 Or individual biases rather than on the objective
criteria that seniority easily provides.
Seniority Cont’d
Management may argue that time worked on the job is
only one measure and the employee’s performance
record should be recorded
 Performance appraisal’s

Depend on supervisors’ ability to evaluate
performance honestly and thoroughly

Viewed by unions
Seniority systems are not required by federal or local
laws, nor are they an inherent right or employees
Calculation of Seniority
•
Seniority is the process of giving preference
in employment decisions on the basis of the
length of continuous service with the
company
–
•
seniority is not awarded to employees until
after the probationary period
Seniority List- identifies employees I a
bargaining unit according to their length of
continuous employment
Types of Seniority
 Plant-wide seniority
 Departmental seniority system
 Classification seniority
 Bumping
Seniority and the
Americans with Disabilities
Act
 The Supreme Court ruled that an employee is not
entitled to a job assignment as a reasonable
accommodation of his or her disability under the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) if the
assignment would conflict with the rules of a
seniority system.
Promotions
 The Bureau of National Affairs estimates that
 Only 5 percent call for promotion decisions based on seniority
as the sole determiner
 49 percent provide that the most senior individual will receive
promotion among those equally qualified
 40 percent provide seniority as one factor along with “skill and
ability, with management determining ability
Promotions
 Job bidding is the process to be detailed in the labor
agreement to minimize misunderstandings and
grievances and to increase employee morale.
Layoff and Recall Rights
 Contract provisions that specify how
seniority, ability, and other factors will be
used to determine the order of employee
temporary job layoffs and job recalls.
Contract Layoff
Procedures
 Four general categories
 1. Layoff based entirely on seniority
 2. Layoff based on seniority among those
employees who management feels are
capable of performing the work.
 3.Layoff based on seniority only if ability and
other factors are equal among affected
employees.
 4. Layoff based on past performance.
Stotts Case
Supreme Court upheld a CBA seniority system
even though layoffs adversely affected blacks
hired under a court order to remedy past
discrimination.
WARN Act
 Worker adjustment and retraining
notification Act.(1989)
 Known in the past as the Plant Closing Act
 Requires employers to provide 60 days of
advance written notice to employees and
communities of either a plant closing or mass
layoffs.
Company Mergers
 Methods of combining the seniority lists of
merged employees
 Surviving group principle
 Length of service principle
 Follow the work principle
 Absolute rank principle
 Ratio-Rank Principle
Subcontracting and
Outsourcing
 The arrangement by an employer to have
another firm make goods or perform work
that could be accomplished by the
employer’s own bargaining unit employees,
usually because the subcontracted work
can be done more efficiently or for less cost.
 Scope Clause
 Provision that prohibits outsourcing
bargaining unit work while any union
member is in layoff status.
Video
 https://youtu.be/DI4zp7yeuMU
Employee Teams
 What is an Employee Team?
 Enhanced productivity occurs in three
primary areas
 Decision Making
 Problem solving
 Creativity
 Union Response to Employee Teams
Successorship
 What is successorship?
 Successorship doctrine: three factors that
must be present for the doctrine to apply to
to the purchaser of a business employing
union members.
 Substantial Continuity
 Appropriate Bargaining Unit
 Predecessor’s workers
Successorship continued
 Successor Employer Rights
 Right to higher own employers
 Right to disregard the predecessors
collective bargaining agreement
 Right to set initial terms of employment
Employee Alcohol and
Drug Testing
Employee Alcohol and
Drug Testing
 Management’s desire to screen all job
candidates may increase because:
 Increase use of drugs within all segments of
society
 Reluctance of previous employers to report
suspected or known drug usage of former
employees
 Employers liability for the negligent hiring of
employees
Employee Alcohol and Drug
Testing Continued..
 Six common types of drug testing used by
employers
 Preemployment testing
 Reasonable suspicion testing
 Routine fitness-for-duty testing
 Post-accident testing
 Random testing
 Follow-up to rehabilitation testing
Employee Alcohol and
Drug Testing Continued..
 Drug testing steps
 Employee Attitudes toward Drug Testing
 Several negotiation issues regarding the
probable cause testing process and the use
of test results.
 Valid testing procedure
 On-the-job impairment
 Refusal to be tested
 Supervisor training
Social Media Usage
 Provisions that deal with social media:
suggested by James A. McCall
 Description of acceptable use of social
media tracking technology
 Notice to workers warning them of such
tracking
 Union access to information obtained
through tracking
 The inclusion of an “on-off switch” on the
tracking technology to protect workers who
take home equipment and are allowed to
use it for personal business.
Public Sector Security
Issues
Questions

What three areas does enhanced productivity occur?

What are three factors that must be present for the doctrine to
apply to the purchaser of a business employing union members?


Can anyone name all 4 successor employee rights discussed?
Name a reason why Management may desire to screen all job
candidates

What is a common type of drug testing used by employers

There are Several negotiation issues regarding the probable cause
testing process and the use of test results, can anyone name one?

What’s a provision that can deal with social media?