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Making a Defensible Discipline Decision – What Every Federal Manager Absolutely Needs to Know

Union involvement

Union Officer
Fed Agency
Wed May 31, 2006 2:08 PM

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Remember you can ask the employee if he wants to talk to the union representative even before you take disciplinary action.

Sometimes union involvement succeeds simply because of the personality or ability of the representative is more effective than that of the supervisor. Once I talked to an employee who was often late because she was taking her granddaughter to day care. The mother wasn't starting her day early enough to take her daughter herself. I simply asked the employee which job was more important to the family. Was it her job as a contracting officer or her daughter's clerical job? It was an easy wake up call for the employee.

Most union representatives would rather act head off a potential grievance than fight one. Everybody wins if it works. It is almost always worth the try.

Re: Union involvement

PA Specialist
AFRC
Mon Jun 5, 2006 9:30 AM
Agree.

If the proper mgt/labor relationship was cultivated, very often the union can act as a "lightning rod" for the workplace. My experience has been that workers approach their unions after a problem has escalated into a big, ugly one--when it could've been "nipped in the bud" early on.

But that'll never happen--makes too much sense, I suppose...

Re: Union involvement

HR Manager
DoD
Mon Jun 5, 2006 9:39 AM
It is worth a try and it will occasionallyl work. In most instances, however, it does not. In my experience, the union usually works to prevent any discipline, regardless of the problem, and often throws up numerous roadblocks to ensure that any action taken is time-consuming, expensive and hurts the productivity and efficiency of the organization.

That is not to say it can't work; just that it usually does not work and usually can't work because of the perceived necessity to prevent any action from occurring.

Negotiating a resignation or transfer is often the most effective way to get around the problem.

Manager's Disciplined

Program Analyst
IRS
Mon Oct 29, 2007 11:32 AM

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What happens when a manager needs to be disciplined for not following Federal laws and agencie's rules and regulations because they are afraid of conflict. Manager's place their employees in situations that appear to others that the employee is being insubordinate.

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