Exam 12: Employee Discipline

When the company decides that discharge is the appropriate disciplinary action,the affected employee is issued a last chance agreement that informs them that they are being discharged.

Arbitrators regard discharge as a last resort to be used only when all other corrective attempts have failed and the employee totally lacks usefulness to the firm.

Evidence indicates that a majority of discharged employees who are reinstated by an arbitrator perform their work in a below-average capacity following reinstatement.

Which of the following is NOT characteristic of progressive discipline?

Management would generally prefer that an arbitrator rely on a "preponderance of evidence" instead of "beyond a reasonable doubt" since it is frequently difficult for management to meet this more stringent standard for evidence of employee misconduct.

Which of the following statements about the managerial implications of discipline is false?

A "reasonable" rule:

Under the implied contract exception to the employment-at-will doctrine,an employee is wrongfully discharged if and when the discharge is inconsistent with an explicit,well-established public policy of the state.

Employers overestimate the potential costs of a wrongful discharge suit and incur indirect costs,such as not terminating employees who perform poorly,costly hiring and decision-making processes,or use severance payments to deter wrongful termination claims.

Discipline cases where arbitrators focus on whether the substance of the message violates an employer policy or infringes on some legitimate employer interest involves:

Under due process element of double jeopardy,the employer cannot first suspend an employee indefinitely and then subsequently discharge the employee.

The passage of the Wagner Act of 1935 and the creation of the NLRB provided the first legal means for holding employers accountable for at least some of their disciplinary decisions and actions.

I​t is not possible to introduce some level of restriction on supervisors to protect employee rights without adversely affecting supervisors' belief in the effectiveness of the disciplinary system.

Employee discipline represents both organizational conditions,which can lead employees to form a disciplined,self-regulated group,and organizational conditions,where managerial actions are taken against an employee who has violated organizational rules.

A manager terminates an employee because of a personal grudge against the employee.This discharge could be contested in at least 20 states under the covenant-of-good faith and fair dealing exception to the employment-at-will doctrine.

Arbitrators often reduce suspensions given to employees,even if other employees have received similar suspensions under identical circumstances

The concept that an employer may dismiss employees at will,for no cause,and even for cause morally wrong,without being guilty of legal wrong is called:

Even though all of the following rationale may be legitimate from a managerial perspective,arbitrators consider which one of the following to be the only legitimate/ necessary purpose of employee discipline?

The interim measure decided by the union and employer when an employee is threatened with a termination which gives the employee a chance to improve his or her performance or conduct in order to keep his or her job is called a:

Under the Weingarten decision,union representation cannot be given to an employee until the employer has concluded its investigation and notified the employee of discharge,and the employee has elected to fight the decision.