Legal Issues

To Happy Toy Employees Union
From John Edwards
Date February 28, 2010

Re Employment Union Fact Sheet
There happens to be a major issue that is taking place in this case. It is clear that there is a formation of a labor union. This is a union that is meant to protect the rights of employees. Other than this union, there are some other activities that are taking place in this working environment that are not really straight. First there is the human resource manager Ms. Abboud, who happens to be a lazy woman. She conducts her activities using some unethical means as she fires people without having to make proper consultation and proper consideration. She therefore makes the working at the company difficult and at the same time makes the workers to live with fear as they do not know when they will be fired. She uses her personal means or rather satisfies her personal gratification by venting her anger and frustrations to other people.

It is clear though that she is not in very good terms with the other workers. She is also not in very good terms with the company director and owner Mr. Tong. From the discussion, it also clear that the process of decision making in the company is very poor. This is the reason why it takes the director too long to decide who should be included in sharing of bonuses. It happens that even after human resources manager suggests on the way bonuses should be shared, Mr. Tong still wants to share it among all the employees. This is a clear indication of communication breakdown and poor decision making processes that exists in the company.

Due to this poor communication that is taking place in this company, there is a formation of a labor union among the employees of the company. Under normal circumstances, this type of union is supposed to comprise of all the employees in the organization but in this case, it only contains some selected employees of the organization. In an organization that has a good communication, this is something that is not supposed to happen. The director only learns of the union formation when he is given the application that he is supposed to approve.

The company has a mixed up form of duty execution and this is the reason why there are a lot of difficulties in determining who should be included in the union. The human resources manager does not do her duties well as she asks some of her juniors to type some confidential information for her. This means that there is no way that these workers will be included in the labor union. The reason is that they know too much and they may use this confidential information and hit on the company.

The company also does not employ or rather put the employment At Will Act into practice. This is because Ms Abboud who is the human resources manager fires Mr. Henders even without a warning. Even though according to her, he was fired because of his poor performance, the company should be given him a warning or even put him under probation for improvement before firing him.

Employment at Will Act states that an organization should never just wake up one morning and decide to terminate the employment contract of the employee without following the right procedure which is clearly stipulated in the Act.

In addition, Ms. Abboud who has no good track record in the company did not make any consultation to anyone before firing Mr. Henders. Even though she may say that she fired him because of his poor performance, it is more likely that she fired him because he was the one who was leading the group which was forming the union. This can be termed as unlawful as all the employees has a right to good and proper working conditions in any place that they may be in. They therefore have a right to fight for their rights and no one should be victimized for joining such a union. This is an act of unreasonable employment practice according to the Labor Relations Act section 8.

Irrespective of whether there is a union or not, all the employees are entitled to bonuses that the company wants to give them. It can therefore be termed as unlawful and at the same time unethical for the management at the company to withdraw all the bonuses that it was supposed to give to the workers simply because they had formed a union. They should still be given the bonuses as they still deserve them. The union is supposed to present their rights in the organization and at the same time protect them from any form of exploitation that may be taking place.

There is a need for the union in the company so that it can protect the workers especially from the harassment that seems to come from the human resources office. However, this union should have the appropriate members as this is the only way that it will not oppress the company and at the same time clearly present the interests of the members. One of the main reasons why there is a problem in this organization is because the management has a problem in the way it conduct its activities. It is clear that there are some people in company who have access to very confidential information for on the company which they should not have access to.

Such type of people should not be presented or rather should not be members of the union. This is because, they have some confidential information and therefore there is a chance of having a conflict of interest with these people between the company and the union. Such people are the secretaries who are often used by the human resources manager. Alternatively, there should be one personal secretary to the human resources manager. He or she should not be a member of the union as she has access to very private and confidential information of the company. If this happens, then the rest should be members of the union.

The best bargaining unit for this union is that the members of the union should be all the employees in the company apart from all those who have access to private and confidential information of the company. This can be interpreted as all the workers in the company apart from all those workers who are above the rank of sales, clerical, lead hand and office staff. The reason is that these people know a lot of information concerning the company and therefore they can use it for their own benefits as union members. Any other person outside this bracket can become a member of the union.

Section 8 of the Ontario Labor laws clearly stipulate that every union and every person that is acting on behalf of the union who discriminates, coerce or intimidate in regard to employment, a condition or a term of employment or membership in union against or even imposes a pecuniary or any other penalty on a person who has already participated or is about to participate in any proceedings under the Ontario Labor Relations Acts or any other Act of Parliament or Legislature unless he or she satisfies to the board that he did not coerce or intimidate in regard to employment, the person has committed an unfair labor practice. This is an act that is supposed to protect the workers.

Using this act, the board is likely to rule in favor of all the members in the company. The act is known to protect all the members of the company who may be blocked from joining the union. This act is known to prevent such discrimination from taking place. Using the section therefore, there is a chance that the board may rule that all the workers or the employees who are working in the company should join the union irrespective of their position in the company.

However, there should be a limit of the type and the position of the workers that should be presented in the union. All those high ranking officials contain a lot of confidential information and therefore, if they are included in the union, it will be unethical for them to still work in the company. Alternatively, the company may allow them to join the union and then filter their duties which will be the same as demoting them. Very few of the workers would agree on this and therefore they would opt to stay without the union. After all they are getting all the incentives that they should get and they do not risk losing their jobs. This way, the board does not risk the union members taking the company to court claiming that there was a breach of contract and that they are going against the Ontario Labor Relations Acts.

There is a chance that the union brings an application to company with the aim of having it registered in the company. The reason is that the Ontario Labor Relations Act allows all the employees of a company to form a union. Therefore, these employees understand very well that they have a right to have the union within the organization. They also understand that through section 8 of the Ontario Labor Relation Act, they are protected against any discrimination that may be raised by the employee. Any other article that is not presented in the Ontario Labor Laws is clearly presented by the Canadian Labor Laws.

The employees are likely to make an application to the top management of the organization for the registration of the union. This registration should include all the employees who may wish to join. This application should be very formal and therefore the company may not be able to reject it. In addition, on the basis of the same Act, the company may not be able to fire Mr. Henders as it maybe argued that the termination of his employment contract is based on discrimination or intimidation because be showed his interest of joining the union.

There is a need to convince the Labor Board to rule in favor of the union. In the recent past, and to be specific since Ms. Abboud came into the company as the human resources manager, there has been a lot of case of termination of employment that has been taking place. Some of these terminations have no base and therefore, there is a need for these employees to be protected. It is clear that the owner of the company is very good but the employees need to protect themselves from the effects of the human resources manager.

The labor union should therefore rule in favor of the union arguing that the main reason why the union is needed is to protect the employees from losing their job through this new and lazy human resources manager. The union is not for fighting for benefits from the organization as they already have them and they have good compensation but the union is for protecting the workers and helping them fight the discrimination that is being practiced by the human resources office. This is the argument that should be raised to the labor board.

It is clear that there is a problem with the way employees are fired in this company. There is therefore a need for some solution that would help the employees in this organization. As the main problem is the human resources manger, there are a number of possible solutions that exists in this company. First is that the employees has no problem with the compensation as the owner of the company is an employee friendly person and he compensates the employees well. A possible solution would be firing Ms. Abboud as she is not even efficient in her duties. A dedicated human resources officer should be hired to replace her. This way, employees will no longer want to have the union as they will be free from illegal and unfair termination.

On the other hand, the Labor Board may consider a number of factors before arriving at their conclusion. First they may look at the reason why the employees want to form a union. The main reason is their illegal termination and not compensation. Due to this, it would have no harm if most of the officials are included in the union. However, it is likely to set the terms under which some of the employees should be members of the union. The board would require that the top officials who have access to private and confidential information not to share the information or even use it in the union meetings or activities. If they use it, they should be considered to have breached the company policy and their employment contract can be terminated. Under these conditions, the board is likely to order the company to allow the employees to have the union.

Cc
Director,
Organizing Committee