OT: A work related question.

edmundfitzgerald

Does a supervisor have the authority to write up an incident report about an employee without any factual evidence against that employee ?

This is just the opinion of one employee against the opinion of another employee, and the supervisor decides
to just believe one of the stories without any witnesses or factual evidence. The supervisor decides to come down hard and write up an incident report about the employee
of their choice, without any evidence whatsoever.

Can a supervisor do this ?

This has happened with this nut supervisor we have at work to two friends of mine, and both times it was about the supervisor just believing a persons side of the story over another.
There was absolutely no evidence whatsoever for the supervisor to go on.

Then the kicker is that the union says there's nothing that can be done for these people. I said to myself, WTF ?? These people are being written up for something they didn't do,
one was a lie, and the other incident didn't happen according to the accused.

Anybody ?

Huncrelan

You might want to post this over on the World and Ancient Coins forum, they seem to have most of the answers.

WinPitcher

Yes, he/she has that authority.

vladguerrero

Yep.

WhiteTornado

<< <i>You might want to post this over on the World and Ancient Coins forum, they seem to have most of the answers. >>



Try the Precious Metals forum, they love conspiracies

SidePocket

Sometimes, whether right or wrong, you have to simply decide if you want to work in an environment like that and simply move on if the answer is no.

Downtown1974

Was there any disciplinary action handed down or is it just a report that is going in their file?

72skywalker

If two different people have different stories you have to look at the credibility of both employees. If one is a good worker, never has shown any reason not to be believed and doesn't cause trouble they would be picked over the person who is being accused, might be a bit of a trouble maker and might be lying so as not to get into trouble. It happens almost everyday here.

If the union won't protect them there probably is a very good reason for that as well. They might know something that the accused is not telling.

dennis07

It would depend on what the "incident report" is used for. If the incident report is nothing more than notes for the supervisor
they do not have a responsibility to get the facts. You mention that the incident report itself is "coming down hard on the employee."
That implies the employee is somehow harmed by the contents of the report. If disciplinary action is taken based on these reports then the Union would more than
likely have the right to read and respond to them. As the Union Rep I would advise the employees involved to write down their side of the story with names, dates, times, places, witnesses and
facts and keep those available in case any action was to be taken against them.

I had many years experience as a Union Representative. It is true that the Union can do little about a bad supervisor. That would be the job of Management.
As the Rep I always make sure Management was aware of poor Supervisors and I wouldn't cut them any slack if the poor Supervisor ever cross the line into
contract violator.

From experience it sounds as if it is possible the supervisor has targeted your 2 friends and could possibly be trying to create an environment they would not want to work in.
It is possible this is nothing more than pure harassment. If the harassment is based on race, religion or sex that would be against the law.

If it boils down to a case of an idiot supervisor and basically "no harm, no foul" for the employees then it's just a matter of being in a situation that sucks.
That probably describes many workplaces around the country.

BruceinGa

<< <i>That probably describes many workplaces around the country. >>



+1

JoeBanzai

dennis07 has some good advice, most of the rest is of little or no help.

I have worked as both a union and non-union employee and while I am NOT a big union supporter (not a union hater either) it's a good thing this happened in a union shop.

In most cases, if disciplinary action is taken a union employee can have his union rep argue the action. MOST of the time, management will lessen the punishment as there are provisions in the bargaining agreement covering this. If no disciplinary action is taken, a grievance might still be filed in order to document that the employee charged with the "offense" has it noted in his file that he/she disagrees with the warning.

I once worked with a guy who never contested his warnings and after 20 years, he had quite a few, management finally terminated him, and the union was not able to save his job, his lack of fighting his warnings was seen as agreeing that he deserved them. The hilarious thing is management was always bragging this guy up because of his perfect attendance. All of a sudden he was GONE.

Unfortunately, most of the time either the first person to complain or the biggest but kisser is believed, whether the accused party is at fault or not.

Managers do not seem to want to waste(?) their time investigating these "he said she said" scenarios, they just want/need to document them, make some kind of decision and move on to the next problem.

I always thought that doing a superior job was enough to ensure my employment, but over the years I have seen some of the worst employees get promoted because of their brown-nosing ability. They usually don't make very good managers.

I wish your friend good luck and would recommend he/she file a grievance if the situation seems unfair, just to cover his/her but.

edited to add; even if the union is not anxious to argue the case for whatever reason the may have, a union member should have the right to file a grievance. Sometimes unions can be more worried about getting along with management instead of protecting their DUES PAYING members!!!!!!