Scenario: Prospect Hospital (PH) has had a busy week. The hospital has just been

Question

Scenario: Prospect Hospital (PH) has had a busy week. The hospital has just been unionized. Four cafeteria employees who were involved in the unionization were dismissed 2 hours before the union was voted in and the former employees filed a charge with the regional labor relations office two weeks later. The company’s CEO has received a charge of discrimination and harassment regarding a female veteran who was interviewed but not hired for an insurance coordinator position two days prior to unionization. The veteran claims the interviewer was making unseemly gestures towards her during the interview. The HR department at PH is now tasked with hiring 100 more lab technicians, nurses, and surgeons.

You can consult the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) website to address the checklist items below:

Checklist:

Identify the laws pertaining to the four dismissed employees and the alleged discrimination and harassment charges.

Identify remedies or actions needed to be taken by the HR department/PH as a result of the charges.

Identify the type of union and what type of union shop (your choice).

State the potential steps that will be taken by the NLRB regarding the charges filed by the former employees.

Identify the laws the hospital will need to follow in order to comply with applicable HR employment laws as well as union labor laws in hiring the additional employees.

Identify what steps the HR Department will generally need to take in order to comply with the above laws.

Explanation / Answer

Discrimination and Harassment Charges

The first issue in the scenario says 4 employees are fired 2 hours prior to Prospect Hospital’s unionization and filed complaints with in 2 weeks well below the 180 days allowed by the EEOC (Raymond Noe, 2018). The aforementioned employees were with in there right to form, join and assist unionization per the National Labor Relations Act (Act; 29 U.S.C. §§ 151-169). During the act of union organizing you are allowed to negotiate terms and conditions with employers, pass out literature, or solicit employees. The employer may not threaten, bribe, disciple, demote or penalize you for engaging in these kinds of activities. (NLRB, 2018) It should be noted that many companies have rules to limit these activities to non-working hours and non-working areas. So long as the employees have not broken any rules regarding solicitation or organizing employees, they could file a wrongful termination law suit due to retaliation of assisting in the organization of a union. (Find Law, 2018)

The second issue arises from a female veteran applying for an Insurance Coordinator position. She claims to have not gotten the job based on gender discrimination and during the interview unseemly gestures were made towards her. In this particular situation the sexual harassment she endured during the interview is a clear example of disparate treatment and can be used as direct evidence of undermining her as a person, discriminating against her qualifications based on her gender, as well as creating a hostile and offensive work environment. The EEOC defines the offense as:

"Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment when submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment." (Find Law, 2018)

Remedies

The goal of the remedy is to put the damaged party in either the same or a similar position to where they would have been if no discrimination took place. If the damaged parties or victims prove discrimination then their remedy could include placement back into their jobs, back pay from when they were let go, any other benefits they had prior to being let go, attorneys fees, and court costs. The employer would have to take steps to prevent any future discrimination and the intentional discrimination could include additional fines or compensation to be paid as well. Since the employer in this situation is a hospital and most likely has over 500 employees it could end up paying up to $300,000 in each suite. In situations that involve harassment, for it to be considered illegal the behavior has to create an environment that’s hostile, intimidating, offensive or all of the above. When it comes to Harassment the best thing that can be done is prevention and taking immediate action when issues do arise. Through a legal doctrine called respondeat superior the employee acts as an extension of the company and the employer is considered responsible for the negative action taken. Each case of harassment is investigated by the EEOC to determine if the actions were server or pervasive enough to be considered illegal and decisions are made on a case by case basis. (EEOC, 2018) Employers may defend themselves if they prove they took steps with supervisors and managers to prevent sexual harassment from occurring.

Union and Union Shop.

Service Employees International Union.

SEIU has over 2 million workers across the US, Canada and Puerto Rico. These workers are part of over 150 local union affiliates. Each of the local unions have their own officers and governing bodies. That way they can set rules, benefits, and wages based on local needs. It also allows the local unions to address local interests and goals. (SEIU, 2018)

Maintenance Membership

“Union security rules not requiring union membership but requiring that employees who join the union remain members for a certain period of time.” (Raymond Noe, 2018)

NLRB.

After filing a charge with the NLRB where you believe your rights have been violated an investigation is conducted. They will gather evidence, take statements, and speak with all parties involved as well as seek out any witnesses to any incidents. Once everything has been reviewed if the evidence supports the claim then the NLRB will work towards a settlement between both parties. If no settlement is reached, then a complaint is issued and leads to a hearing from an administrative law judge.

Employment Law and How to Comply.

Prospect Hospital is going to be hiring 100 more lab technicians, nurses, and surgeons. There are several laws the hospital will need to follow during this process. One of the most important to remember during this process is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 1991. These are important because it made acts of discrimination against race, color, religion, sex, and national origin illegal. Documentation becomes especially important to show that everything from hiring an employee is fair, through training, and pay. Should a claim of discrimination be made and proven the EEOC will enforce civil penalties. Here are a few of the steps HR must look at or do before hiring a new employee:

(Find Law, n.d.)

Since the Hospital is also now unionized it will also need to follow the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959. This act protects union funds by having labor unions file financial reports, labor relations practice. This act is administered by the Office of Labor-Management Standards. (Department of Labor, 2018)

References

Department of Labor. (2018). Summary of the Major Laws of the Department of Labor.

EEOC. (2018). Harassment. Retrieved from eeocgov: eeocgov/laws/types/harassment

Find Law. (2018). What is Sexual Harassment. Retrieved from employment.findlaw.: employment.findlaw/employment-discrimination/sexual-harassment-what-is-it.

Find Law. (2018). Wrongful Termination Laws: Illegal Reasons. Retrieved from Smallbusiness.findlaw.smallbusiness.findlawemployment-law-and-human-resources/wrongful-termination-laws-illegal-reasons

Find Law. (n.d.). Legal rights during the hiring process. Retrieved from employmnet.findlaw.employment.findlaw/hiring-process/legal-rights-during-the-hiring-process.

NLRB. (2018, May 8). Your Rights during Union Organizing. Retrieved from NLRB.Gov: nlrb/rights-we-protect/whats-law/employees/i-am-not-represented-union/your-rights-during-union-organizing

Raymond Noe, J. H. (2018). Fundamentals of Human Resources. New York: Mc-Graw-Hill Education.

SEIU. (2018). How is SEIU Structured. Retrieved from seiuorg/cards/these-fast-facts-will-tell-you-how-were-organized/how-are-we-structured/p2

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