WEEK 3

Business Management -- Human Resource Issues

Plan for Disciplinary Meeting

The disciplinary meeting must address all three issues in their relative order of importance. Specifically, the disciplinary meeting will address poor work performance, tardiness, and conduct issues. Prior to the meeting with the employee, Human Resources representatives will meet with the individual's supervisor to ascertain the necessary information and details at issue. During the meeting with the employee and his manager or supervisor, the HR representative will advise the employee of the apparent problems and inquire into any explanation that could potentially explain his side of things. For example, the HR representative will ask whether the employee has encountered any medical, physical, or psychological problems that could have contributed to his actions and work performance.

Potential Pitfalls, Legal Issues, and the Role of Human Resources

Some of the potential pitfalls and legal issues include accusations of discrimination or failure to accommodate disabilities. That is why the HR representative will first provide the employee the opportunity to rule out causes or explanations for the apparent inappropriate conduct or poor performance in the realm of any possible issues that could trigger discrimination claims. The HR representative can avoid these pitfalls by confirming, for example, that the employee is not suffering from any medical or physical disability that interferes with his work performance or ability to get to work on time. Similarly, HR would want to rule out any possible emotional or psychological ailments or conditions that could have caused the verbal outburst before taking action that is appropriate without any legally recognized mitigating factors. More generally, the role of human resources is primarily to mediate between the employee and the supervisor to provide the employee a reasonable opportunity and plan to improve his performance and conduct so that if punitive action must eventually be taken, it will be as a last resort.

Important Human Resource Laws

Americans with Disabilities Act

Under the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act, employers may not discriminate against qualified applicants for employment based on physical or mental disabilities as long as those individuals are capable of performing their vocational duties with reasonable accommodations. The employer also has a legal duty to provide reasonable accommodations that are necessary to enable the individual to overcome the difficulties associated with his or her disability.

Age Discrimination in Employment Act

According to the provisions of Age Discrimination in Employment Act, employers may not discriminate against individuals forty years of age or more in the "terms, privileges, and conditions" of employment based on age. However, there are certain exceptions to this law, such as where age is a material condition of performance or suitability for the specific vocational responsibilities or where hiring older employees would be incompatible with existing seniority systems as long as those systems are bona fide and not mechanisms intended to evade the consequences of ADEA compliance.