Parking discrimination at work

[careerbound]

Jurisdiction

Ohio

I have two individuals being wrote up for violating supervisors order of moving their vehicles into the parking lot and off the public road. This is a union shop, parking policies are not included in any handbook. The operation manager states that management has an excuse to park on the public road because they have and hour lunch break. I'm wondering if the argument could be won with using unlawful discriminatory practice? Where's as it's ok for management but not working factory floor employees. Although every employee of this establishment should be considered as one.

 

[cbg]

Nope, not gonna fly. To qualify as illegal discrimination, the practice must be based in a characteristic protected by law. "Whether you are or are not management" is not a characteristic protected by law.

 

[zddoodah]

I have two individuals

What do you mean when you say that you "have" these people? What is your connection to this situation?

two individuals being wrote up for violating supervisors order of moving their vehicles into the parking lot and off the public road.

Are the vehicles legally parked? If so, why does this matter?

The operation manager states that management has an excuse to park on the public road because they have and hour lunch break.

Why does anyone need an "excuse to park [legally] on the public road"?

I'm wondering if the argument could be won with using unlawful discriminatory practice? Where's as it's ok for management but not working factory floor employees.

It's perfectly legal for an employer to have different policies applicable to management and non-management employees.

every employee of this establishment should be considered as one.

Karl Marx would agree, but his economic philosophy is not law in the U.S.

 

[Tax Counsel]

I have two individuals being wrote up for violating supervisors order of moving their vehicles into the parking lot and off the public road. This is a union shop, parking policies are not included in any handbook. The operation manager states that management has an excuse to park on the public road because they have and hour lunch break. I'm wondering if the argument could be won with using unlawful discriminatory practice? Where's as it's ok for management but not working factory floor employees. Although every employee of this establishment should be considered as one.

It is discrimination in favor of management, but favoring management is not ILLEGAL discrimination. Only discrimination based on factors that the law prohibits is illegal discrimination. Illegal discrimination includes basing the decision on factors like race, color, religion, sex (including sexual orientation, gender identity, etc), national origin, citizenship, age, disability, or genetic test information under federal law (some states/localities add a few more categories like marital status, veteran status, etc). But in no state is it illegal for management to get better treatment than rank and file employees. You have a union representing the workers. If the workers want to change the parking policy, their remedy is to ask their union to bargain for that when it meets with management to discuss the next collective bargaining unit agreement.

 

[careerbound]

I appreciate everyone's input on the situation. The write up were thrown out because of the incompleteness of the description, date of incident was wrong, policy number that was violated, and no time given when incident occurred. Although, the company has stated that they have five days and allowed the supervisor to just re-write the write up and serve them again. They are the only individuals being wrote up for it and are on same shift. There is no parking policy set into place at this establishment. Another employee,on purpose, on a different shift, parked on the public road, but was never approached to move his vehicle. I assume it'll have to be approached at a different angle. The vehicles were parked legally on the public road but in same sense I found no one should be parking there because the city has a 15 minute parking sign posted. I do thank you for your insight on the situation.

 

[adjusterjack]

Why is this even something to fight over?

Is everybody in your company 12 years old?

 

[cbg]

Just to be sure it is absolutely clear, in the situation you have described "parking discrimination" is 100% legal.

 

[careerbound]

I understand the whole difference between management and employees, but when you have another employee doing same thing and not getting any repercussions for it. It makes it stand out. We would rather not fight about it all, it wasn't a problem for five years, so not sure why it's a problem now. I think it's petty issue to be bring up during a time when contract negotiations has been extended 4 times. There are more important things they should be focusing on.

 

[cbg]

It may be petty, but it's legal.

 

[careerbound]

I guess, I should have asked, how should the response be stated on the grievance for the Individuals that have been wrote up for this infraction, when you have no policy in place in the contract book about parking?

 

[Zigner]

I guess, I should have asked, how should the response be stated on the grievance for the Individuals that have been wrote up for this infraction, when you have no policy in place in the contract book about parking?

Were they told not to do it and then written up for doing it after having been told not to?

 

[careerbound]

They were asked to move their vehicles. They decided not to.

 

[Tax Counsel]

I guess, I should have asked, how should the response be stated on the grievance for the Individuals that have been wrote up for this infraction, when you have no policy in place in the contract book about parking?

What contract book? In general, company employee handbooks are simply statements of company policies and do not make enforceable contracts. If they are simply statements of policy then management may choose to ignore them if they wish; no law requires they follow their own policy (though of course good managment would do that or they'd not have bothered coming up with the policy manual in the first place). If you are referring to the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) your union has with the employer, then it is the union rep (usually the shop steward) that needs to make this an issue with management. You indicate that there is no stated parking policy in whatever document you are looking at, and if there isn't anything in the CBA about it, all your union rep can do is raise a fuss about it and hope that management doesn't want to deal with that and will agree to something that will satisfy most everyone. If management is unwilling to discuss the issue now, then it'll have to wait until it's time to renegotiate the CBA.

The bottom line is that management runs the company, and unless what management does either violates the law or the CBA it may do as it pleases and set the policies it wants. So if the employees want this change, the better approach may be one of persuasion rather than confrontation.

 

[welkin]

Another employee,on purpose, on a different shift, parked on the public road, but was never approached to move his vehicle. I assume it'll have to be approached at a different angle. The vehicles were parked legally on the public road but in same sense I found no one should be parking there because the city has a 15 minute parking sign posted. I do thank you for your insight on the situation.

I don't get the idea that the company has anything to say about who or when someone can park on a public street where parking is allowed. The company can't dictate who parks on a city street. But they can certainly control who and where people park on the company's property.

 

[Tax Counsel]

They were asked to move their vehicles. They decided not to.

So the problem they were written up for was for not following management's orders rather than just the parking issue itself? They were told what to do, so they knew what their management wanted. Not doing that is defying management, always a risky thing for employees to do. Managers typically don't like their employees blowing off what the manager tells them to do, and that usually doesn't end well for the employees.

 

[Zigner]

I don't get the idea that the company has anything to say about who or when someone can park on a public street where parking is allowed. The company can't dictate who parks on a city street.

In the strictest sense, you are correct. They can't stop an employee from parking on a public street. Of course, it may not matter once the employee becomes a former employee...
A company is allowed to instruct its employees not to park in certain places during working hours, and that includes on public streets.

 

[Tax Counsel]

I don't get the idea that the company has anything to say about who or when someone can park on a public street where parking is allowed. The company can't dictate who parks on a city street. But they can certainly control who and where people park on the company's property.

The employer may fire an employee for any reason not prohibited by law, which includes parking in places that management doesn't want them to park. My guess is that the reason it's a problem for management is that street parking is at least somewhat limited and they want that street parking available for customers and/or vendors. But even if the reason isn't directly business related it's not illegal for a company to require employees to park in a particular area and if employees refuse to follow that company directive, the employer may legally fire them for it. The only problem for the employer would be if the directive violated the union CBA, in which case the union would have a breach of contract claim to pursue for the employees.

If street parking doesn't pose any business problems and the only reason management has this policy is to make it easier (closer) for management to park for work that may be petty, but not illegal.

 

[careerbound]

We do have a CBA, but right now it has been extended for the 4th time until July 26. The write up was dropped the first time, but company allowed the supervisor to re-write his write-up and serve it again, because they state they have five days. How many times are they allowed to correct their own mistakes?

 

[careerbound]

The employer may fire an employee for any reason not prohibited by law, which includes parking in places that management doesn't want them to park. My guess is that the reason it's a problem for management is that street parking is at least somewhat limited and they want that street parking available for customers and/or vendors. But even if the reason isn't directly business related it's not illegal for a company to require employees to park in a particular area and if employees refuse to follow that company directive, the employer may legally fire them for it. The only problem for the employer would be if the directive violated the union CBA, in which case the union would have a breach of contract claim to pursue for the employees.

If street parking doesn't pose any business problems and the only reason management has this policy is to make it easier (closer) for management to park for work that may be petty, but not illegal.

It does pertain to your response on its closer for management.

 

[careerbound]

What contract book? In general, company employee handbooks are simply statements of company policies and do not make enforceable contracts. If they are simply statements of policy then management may choose to ignore them if they wish; no law requires they follow their own policy (though of course good managment would do that or they'd not have bothered coming up with the policy manual in the first place). If you are referring to the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) your union has with the employer, then it is the union rep (usually the shop steward) that needs to make this an issue with management. You indicate that there is no stated parking policy in whatever document you are looking at, and if there isn't anything in the CBA about it, all your union rep can do is raise a fuss about it and hope that management doesn't want to deal with that and will agree to something that will satisfy most everyone. If management is unwilling to discuss the issue now, then it'll have to wait until it's time to renegotiate the CBA.

The bottom line is that management runs the company, and unless what management does either violates the law or the CBA it may do as it pleases and set the policies it wants. So if the employees want this change, the better approach may be one of persuasion rather than confrontation.

What do you do when there's no parking policy in the CBA at all and what argument with management can you make if they, actually shouldn't be allowing anyone to park there due to the city ordinance sign that states 15 minute parking.