Plant Services - January 2008 - (Page 49) IN THE TRENCHES Acme’s own employee handbook. How could this situation have been avoided? Should employees have any say in their own compensation package? Can Dawn’s actions on behalf of the other Nadirites justify her claim to be a “union president?” Does it make sense for Acme Industrial to have different compensation packages for its own consultants and those it cherry-picked from the Nadir lineup? Acme doesn’t understand the industrial consulting business. Creative financing is the first clue that due diligence wasn’t done. Proven performers with strong client relationships should be embraced and cultivated. Also, the way to build an engaged and productive merged team is through communication excellence and building trust by acting with integrity. Neither party did either. Dawn’s nonproductive dialogue was off-target. The former Nadir group could have presented a logical, rational business case for their position. Business would likely take a major hit if they no longer serviced their customers. Presenting a plan for resolving the compensation issue would have been a positive step. Most businesses provide some latitude on various aspects of compensation. Had a productive dialog taken place, the Nadir employees might have accepted greater risk in return for increased bonus potential. Dawn continued to produce in the face of compensation ambiguities. Seeing her squashed most likely caused the other former Nadir employees to dust off resumes, backup laptop data and begin a job search. Dawn’s actions on behalf of the others can’t justify a claim to be “union president.” Regardless of intention, the phrase resulted in a defensive posture by management. This illustrates an important moral: professionalism builds rapport, over-familiarization can lead to unintended consequences. Management’s posture didn’t promote communication or trust and Dawn’s self-appointment signaled that Nadir employees might be disruptive. If communication and trust are low or known to be poor, it’s best to act with integrity. Dawn didn’t use good judgment by sending e-mails to corporate executives instead of going through her “chain of command.” Al might have been an ally had she not gone over his head. That probably put him in the position of explaining why one of his people was so disruptive. It makes no sense for Acme to have different compensation packages for its own consultants and those from Nadir. While it’s legitimate to have job classifications based on experience and education, differences between legacy and new employees won’t help build a team. Equal pay for equal responsibility and capability should be the norm. It makes no sense to start the relationship with conflict. This is particularly true when legacy Acme employees lacked the industrial consulting experience of the former Nadir staff members. Tom Moriarty, P.E., CMRP Organizational Reliability Professional Services Consultant (321) 773-3356 tjmpe@alidade-mer.com 49 A corporate consultant says: An attorney says: Employers sometimes think they don’t have any concerns under the National Labor Relations Act when they are dealing with non-union employees. Such isn’t the case. The NLRA gives employees the right to engage in “concerted” activity for the purpose of collective bargaining, mutual aid or protection. “Concerted” means a group of employees or even one employee, such as Dawn, who is speaking on behalf of colleagues. The NLRA further prohibits employers from interfering with an employee’s right to engage in protected concerted activity. Put in simpler terms, an employer can’t terminate an employee for speaking out on behalf of a group of employees in an effort to better their compensation or working conditions. Was Dawn a union president? No. At the outset, there was no union — Acme didn’t voluntary recognize a union as the representative of its employees, and the NLRB didn’t certify that a union represented Acme’s employees. If there was no union, Dawn could not have been its president. Apart from the termination of Dawn “in vicious retaliation for her endless carping,” Acme was free to offer any commission scheme it wished, fair or unfair, higher or lower than the commission scheme Nadir offered. If an employee doesn’t wish to work for the compensation the employer offers, she is always free to decline the offer of employment. That isn’t to say that employees don’t have a say in their compensation. Applicants negotiate for more salary and benefits all the time. But the best time to negotiate is when the employee hasn’t yet accepted the offer of employment. Dawn was either naive or precipitous in accepting a job without knowing the commission arrangement. For the protection of both employer and employee, commission arrangements should always be put in writing. It doesn’t make any sense for Acme to pay its own employees working for Acme at a higher rate than it pays the employees from Nadir. That unwise decision sparked the chain of events that will no doubt result in Acme reinstating Dawn to her position and paying her back pay. Julie Badel, partner Epstein Becker & Green, P.C. (312) 499-1418 jbadel@ebglaw.com January 2008 www.PLANTSERVICES.com http://www.PLANTSERVICES.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.