Solicitation Policies

Ruskanen

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 01-21-05 AT 10:43AM (CST)[/font][br][br]I wish more legal documents and policies were written like Dr. Seuss. They would be easier to understand.

Most of the solicitation policies I've seen say that solicitation is prohibited during working time of employees.

Does that mean that they can sell their homemade burritos and tamales to their co-workers while they are all on break?

Can you prohibit solicitation of any kind on company property, even during non-work times?

Is accepting a donation for candy bars that are left on your desk considered solicitation?

When employees do a money collection because a co-worker's family member has died, is that solicitation?

If an employee is selling items from a catalog, such as Pampered Chef or Interior Designs, is the catalog considered a distribution of printed literature and therefore goes against a solicitation policy that prohibits the distribution of printed literature? So, if you allow solicitation during non-work times, technically an employee could order Avon from a co-worker, as long as the literature/catalog wasn't involved and they were both on break?

Can they sell it on their break? Can they sell it by the lake? Can they leave it by the door? Can they bring burritos, tamales and more? Please tell me, oh Sam I am.

Do any of you have a policy that you like that covers all of this?

Down_the_Middle

Aside from the basic rules of prohibiting solicitation on working time and in work areas, I think your questions can be best answered by your labor counsel. Solicitation/distribution is a complex issue and varies a little by industry, so giving you generalized info will likely not serve you well enuf. I think this is too big a serving for this forum to eat!!!

marc

Think about the purpose of non-solicitation policies.

As the ER, I think you are looking to accomplish a couple of things.

One is to keep the EE focused on the work and the value it brings.

Another is to protect the EE's who cannot say no to the co-workers fundraisers,

or the tupperware, make-up or better razors.

Target your energy to the worst offenders,
or you will find yourself in a morass that will never end(ers?)

TN HR

There's another twist to non-solicitation policies. A properly designed and enforced non-solicitation policy should be a key part of your union avoidance strategy.

Obviously, the key part here is that you have to enforce it uniformly. It will not do you any good to allow Girl Scout cookie sales and then attempt to stop leafleting by non-employees on the property.

Gene

HRinFL

Gene is exactly right! I do not believe that you can necessary end all attempts at raising money to send the band on a trip, but you need to have a clearly defined policy on solicitation. No personal want ads/fliers, etc., on company bulletin boards. No discussing fund raising, selling the car/house during work time. If you see anything that is not work related on a company bulletin board, take it down immediately. Replace with a memo that this is not acceptable. In my opinion, you only have a responsibility to address this issue during work time, and to address if signs, etc. are posted on company informational resources or in work areas. That will cut out most of it.

System

I was about to post nearly the same reply as Gene's. Fund raisers and Avon seem harmless enough until the big "U" decides to solicit. Even aside from union activity, the others get out of hand. You'll never be able to stop all conversations about cookies, lipstick, and food choppers but you can set rules that prohibits the literature.

Don D

Exactly! The primary reason labor lawyers recommend and write non-solicitation policies is because of union avoidance. Once you open up solicitation to even something as seemingly harmless as Girl Scout Cookies and Bake Sales, you are literally required to allow others to solicit. If you don't tightly control who solicits and who can post what about which subjects, you have left yourself wide open to the union's favorite organizing vehicle.

Dutch2

Amen!!! If it is good for one it must be good for all. I have a heck of a time every year during Girl Scout cookies, Boy Scout PopCorn, local churches bake sales, etc.. You think you have it under control and then in comes the granddaughter of one of our Board of Directors in her Girl Scout uniform with her cookie order form and she is going office to office and dept. to detp.
We have for all parctical purposes given up. I keep telling the Preisdent, CEO and COO just how allowing soliciation and posting on the bulletin boards opens the door for possible union activity and such but basically their opinion is it hasn't been a problem so far so their is no need to worry about it.
Just what does it take to get the Sr. Mgmt Team to accept preventive measures and not take a wait unitl something happens additude and then everyone, especailly HR, must jump through hoops to try and get it all fixed as if nothing ever happened. (and no, I do not want any cheese with than whine)...
Good luck,
Dutch2

lynn2008

Wasn't their a recent ruling by the labor board that essentially gave the green light to items like girl scout cookies, school fund raisers and similar without putting your union avoidance agenda on the line? This in early 2004, I beleive.

ritamcguire

I have in my hand a copy of an exerpt from the California Employment Law Letter which was distribute by HRhero.com on 3/8/2002. I used it to form our company's "no-solicitation" policy. The article states that the NLRB, through it's Gen Counsel Arthur Rosenfeld, issued a memorandum in light of companies wanting to take up collections for 9/11 victims, while not voiding the companies no-solicitation policy. In the memo Mr Rosenfeld states, "...an employer may lawfully permit a small number of isolated beneficent acts as exceptions to a valid no-solicitation/no-distribution rule." He goes on to state, "Although the Board has not defined the exact number of incidents of solicitation or distribution necessary to find unlawful discrimination, it has found that three incidents of employer condonation of charitable solicitation was permitted." (This article was obviously written by a government lawyer, since most of us would never think to use the word "condonation".)

I'm not sure how this would stand up if confronted by a union organizing effort, but I'm using it to justify in-house soliciation for very specific and exceptional reasons,i.e., a local disaster (a neighboring company burns down leaving hundreds of employees out of work) or the death of one of our employees (two weeks ago from a heart attack).

Perhaps James could comment on and/or redistribute the article?

Don D

As well, our company, around Christmas (excuse me, the Holiday season) posts a notice reminding employees that our company continues to "adopt" the non-profit nursing home in this community and donations are again being accepted. Annually we give them a couple hundred bucks and all of the turkeys we don't give to employees at that time. But, this is not at all the same as allowing employees to post to the board advertising and soliciting for their children's or church's activities or the multitude of other special interests that employees have. The key, or so it was explained to me by the NLRB agent, is that the company or organization has as a whole taken a benevolent cause as a project.

WE also adopted, as an organization this year, the family of an employee who was wiped out in a house burglary.

The key, as explained to me by the agent, is that these are not individual or select-group postings or advertisements or solicitations.

National Guard

I notice that no one touched on the can of worms under moral and ethical aspect of solicitation at work. Coming from a military background it was allways drilled into us (one of the reasons against solicitation) that you can never solicit downwards. In other words, a person of higher rank who asks you to buy/donate to a cause or cookie inherently puts undo pressure on the solicitee. Sometimes there is no such thing as saying no to your boss who wants you to buy from their child/grandchild, or there new venture into Amway! Some people will just feel uncomfortable saying no, sometimes it is implied that you are free to say no, but, you really shouldn't!

ritamcguire

Excellent point in regards to putting pressure on those that you supervise or have authority over. Next to stopping union organizing activity, this is probably the most important reason to have a non-solicitation policy.

Leslie

Solicitation harassment? Quid quo pro solicitation? I never thought of it that way. Interesting stuff.