Am I overreacting?!?

LindaS · September 2003

I have several issues regarding employee attendance, reporting for work, vacations, etc. and would like to know if I'm "making a mountain out of a molehill". We are a unionized manufacturing company that has a flextime and attendance policy (not a part of the contract) as well as vacation (part of the contract). Our flextime policy allows for unlimited flexing for doctor and dentist appts. but only once per week for no reason. All flextime is to be approved by the supervisor beforehand. The vacation plan allows for up to 5 "last minute" vacations per year and all others must be scheduled at least two days in advance. Here's the problem...

I have employees who come to work before their shift is to start and begin working. They do this without prior approval and the supervisors feel this is "okay" since they have work for them. There isn't and recording of the "last minute" vacation days so nobody knows how many the employee has used. I have employees reporting to work late (without contacting their supervisor)and not being registered as "tardy" as long as they make up the time at the end of their shift. The flextime policy runs on verbal requests so there isn't any documentation regarding how many days a person has used in a week.

Today I had two employees report to work early (one came in one hour and one came in two hours) without telling anyone so there wasn't any work ready for them. I have two employees who were working OT last week who decided to leave after 8 hours (they came in early to work the OT) and didn't tell anyone they were leaving. When I brought this to the attention of the production manager, I told him that the employees should be receive a documented discipline and he disagreed.

I want to have a meeting with all the supervisors and tighten up these policies before there are additional problems but I got the impression from the production manager that he doesn't feel that is necessary. I have a concern regarding disciplining an EE for attendance matters and having this inconsistency being thrown in our faces. His response to this was that as long as nothing is in writing, they (the union) doesn't have any proof of any wrongdoing. I obviously disagree but wanted your opinions.

Am I way out of line on this?

Joe HR · September 2003

I have to agree with you Linda. If you are not consistent in the way you enforce a policy, then the union will come after you saying your do not treat all employees equally. I don't care what your manager says about nothing being in writing so the union cannot use it against you. When you get before an arbitator and the employees get up and testify that they were not issued discipline for doing the same thing for which another employee was disciplined, you will probably lose. I would think the union would parade a group of employees to testify.
Besides it usually falls under the Management Rights clause in a contract to retain the exclusive right to manage its operation and that includes establishing the work hours. With individuals coming in whenever they feel like it and without their supervisor's permission, the employees or the union are establishing the work hours and that is not good.
I would go to whomever is over the Production Manager and have a discussion with he/she to obtain their support for administering the policies consistently for everyone. Then I would meet with the supervisors.
Good luck.

PAhr · September 2003

If I were you, I would have a discussion with the ultimate decision maker about implimenting a new flex time policy which would be very specific about how often it can be done, procedures that MUST be followed when using flex time (written request sheets stating the exact hours an employee will work, two days in advance unless there are extenuating circumstances), prior approval MUST be granted before flexing and the consequences should the policy not be adhered to (be very specific about the discipline that will be taken). As the supervisors are also employees, I would make it clear to them that their failure to enforce the policy will result in disciplinary action against them as well. I would also firm up the vacation policy along the same lines. You should impliment request sheets for vacation which must be turned in to HR at the end of each week.

Am I overreacting?!?

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