4 November 2009 Out comes the big stick and thwack
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It is becoming more unusual that reinstatement occurs after dismissal but if the argument is clear we all hope that any company and manager would listen to the facts put before them and be open and honest in their deliberations.
Unfortunately throughout the industry this is increasingly not the case. Disciplines and Managing for Attendance (MFAs) are becoming business models where some companies use, to put it bluntly, the stick approach in which to beat the worker. |
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At one meeting this union asked how MFAs where conducted by their company and how the person conducting the meeting approached each members attendance record. The answer we received was that it is at the discretion of the manager. This is not acceptable, fair and just. Our members’ livelihood must not be judged on what mood the manager woke up in that morning.
What happens if the person being interviewed has a lively nature and fairly outspoken (at one time this used to be called standing up for your beliefs and your rights)? The manager pulls out the big stick at a disciplinary or MFA meeting and thwack, hits them with an MFA 1 or wallop, Form 1 and cack, dismissal.
Good management should base each disciplinary or MFA on facts with a fair and just approach to resolving and assisting that member. What seems to be happening in the industry with MFAs is that if you have an injury you go straight onto stage 1. You have a serious illness, stage 2. You are involved in an accident outside of work, stage 3 and dismissal. This is not what MFAs are designed for.
Companies and management are increasingly saying that MFAs are not a form of discipline. What planet do these people come from? Stage 1 leads to stage 2, stage 2 onto stage 3 and dismissal. ATCU is also concerned that employers are slowly removing the right of appeal at certain stages of MFAs. Workers unions should collectively and decidedly reject any measure that dilutes the right of appeal at any stage.
Companies with Victorian values
We are alarmed that companies and management are seemingly returning to the old us and them attitude and the MFA scenario is a prime argument to this fact. Over the recent decade some employers, and we stress some employers, are increasingly moving back to Victorian factory style management. The question therefore needs to be asked why this happening.
ATCU argues that newly appointed managers do not have the necessary training for their role. They do not receive manager training; neither do they receive what is potentially the most essential of all, people skills.
Politicians and employers have in the past criticised workers unions for their lack of business etiquette and economic understanding. They say that we should work together for the betterment of the company and the workforce, this we agree on all accounts but not if it is at the cost of workers being clubbed into fear and subservience.
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