Exam 13: Employee Rights and Discipline

Johnny Damon, the human resource manager at Damon Electric Utility, wants to reduce the pay for one of his employees. The pay is included in the employee's employment contract. How can Mr. Damon legally change the employee's pay?

Because personnel files are the employer's property, an employee may be barred from seeing his or her file.

When a supervisor decides to dismiss an employee, which of the following suggestions should NOT be followed?

With an open-door policy, decisions tend to be consistent across managers.

What is a key characteristic of an implied employment contract?

An ombudsperson solves problems through negotiation and mediation activities between supervisors and subordinates.

Organizations are required by law to comply with ethical guidelines.

Employee rights are granted to workers by the courts, legislatures, and/or employers.

Under a step-review appeal procedure, the last step involves which of the following employee groups?

The employment-at-will doctrine states that either the employee or the employer may terminate the employment relationship for any reason.

The HR department is responsible for developing disciplinary policies and procedures.

What is the term for discipline programs designed to motivate an employee to correct his or her misconduct voluntarily?

Positive discipline is based on a mutual problem-solving approach, but resolutions are still mandated by the HR department.

One of the major reasons for investigative interviews is to establish the facts surrounding an employee's offence.

Scenario 13.2 Woodbridge Group Inc. (WG), a Canadian consultancy firm, is having a hard time keeping all its employees as a result of the last recession. Most of its clients are based in the United States, and tighter restrictions there have led to some clients severing business ties with WG. With the loss of business, the company claims it cannot afford to continue paying employees even though the company is still profitable. Management is planning to let some of them go, and plans to give them four weeks' pay in lieu of notice. While these employees are not unionized, they do have contracts that entitle them to fixed amounts of weeks worked for each year they have been with WG. -Refer to Scenario 13.2. WG wants to avoid being sued for wrongful dismissal as it may cost the company more than what is stipulated in the contract. Which of the following is NOT accurate?

Tammy Faye, a university student, is doing research on cases decided by the Supreme Court on employee dismissals for threatening coworkers on the job. Which of the following regimes of employment law is Tammy researching?

In order to be effective, employee discipline must take place as soon as possible after the problem is verified.

Susan is a fast-track employee slotted for a vice-president position. Her next job assignment is a foreign position in a South American country as director of your manufacturing division. Unfortunately, this position requires supervising foreign male managers who are largely opposed to supervision by females. To not send Susan on this assignment would "short-step" her promotion to vice-president, and possibly be viewed as discriminatory. How would you handle this ethical situation? Be specific.

What are some of the pros and cons of "open-door" policies?

In a recent Society for Human Resource Management study, which of the following factors was found to be the most important driver of employee trust and loyalty?