13.4 Cases and Problems

Chapter Case

But I Didn’t Know

After a meeting with the operations manager of your organization, you close the door to your office so you can think of strategies to resolve an issue that has come up. The operations manager casually mentioned he had just finished granted Special Leave – Household Emergency to an employee who had to take his dog to the vet. This clause in the collective agreement was intended to give employees time to deal with an emergency such as burst pipes or a fire. The operations manager, being new both to the company and to a union shop, wasn’t aware of the intent of this clause in the collective agreement. You worry that if other employees get wind of this, your costs could escalate rapidly as the majority of your employees have some sort of pet. Collective agreement language must be interpreted and applied consistently across the organization. Of course, the challenge is that the manager already told this person he would be receiving the day off with pay as a Special Leave. You know you need to act fast to remedy this situation.

1. As an HR professional, what should you have done initially to prevent this issue from happening?
2. Outline a specific strategy to implement stating how you will prevent this from happening in the future.
3. What would you do about the day off with pay that was already promised to the employee?
4. If the union files a grievance, what type of grievance do you think it would be? Provide reasoning for your answer.
5. If the union does file a grievance, draft a response to the grievance to share with your upper-level managers as a starting point for discussion on how to remedy the situation.