Manager/ employee comparison

Manager/ Employee Comparison

EMPLOYEE COMPARISON Employee Comparison I used to work at a motor-vehicle assembly line at General Motors Ltd plant situated at Detroit, Michigan in a factory composed of about five hundred workers. More than two hundred workers have been fired, retired or transferred due to debilitating on-the-job injuries or for complaining over issues of work not related on issues. The employees are also complaining that the work-related stress and non-payment of dues emanating from airtime have made them poorer as compared to their colleagues from similar plants elsewhere. The employees in the plant are not enough to meet the number of vehicles that are assembled through the line and the workers are forced to work extra hours than the stipulated timeline. This means that the workers have to work longer hours and this makes them susceptible to make error as well as putting their lives at risks of the machines and equipment within the factory.
The workers in this plant want alternative work schedules other than the normal forty hours for the whole week (University of Washington). While the employer want a reduction on these in order to cut on their wage bill, the workers insist that the hours remain so in order to shore up their earnings. Further, the workers want the union to put in place a framework for the payment of any overtime hours and a leeway for employees to refuse more than the specified number of overtime hours per week. The employers on the other hand want to restrict employees to a specified number of overtime per week and those who do not meet this are liable for punishment. The workers in this plant also want the shifts to rotate in a manner that allows all the workers in the plant to have free times with their families. The workers also want to be paid time off including when on vacations, holidays and defined leaves (Catlin-Legutko and Stacy 36) while the management of the factory are opposed to the idea and may at times restrict the entitlement or use. While the factory does not consider seniority as a criterion for the transfer of employees instead of layoffs, the workers prefer that there should be consultations in line with a Collective Bargaining Agreement before an employee is transferred (Berkowitz, Phillip and Thomas, 17). The workers and the management should sit down and have flexible work schedules that looks at the interest of both the worker and the employer and the overtimes paid commensurate with work done.
A major non-wage related issue that brings about the debate between General Motors Ltd employees and their employer is the matter of work conditions and safety. This includes clauses that deal with the provision of safety equipment and non-hazardous work environment. The workers demand that their rights should be higher than those set by the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) as they feel that that they are exposed to dangerous machines at the work place. The management on the other hand feels that they have less influence on the work place and it is upon the worker to take an initiative that the health and safety area of the work place is guaranteed. This has brought about frequent complaints and litigation between the workers and the employer on who should bear the burden of securing the health of the employees and protecting them from harm. Both the worker and the employer should sit down and come up with an amicable way of ensuring the safety and health of the employees.
Works Cited
Berkowitz, Philip M, and Thomas Müller-Bonanni. International Labor and Employment Law.
Chicago, Ill: Section of International Law, American Bar Association, 2006. Print.
Catlin-Legutko, Cinnamon, and Stacy Klingler. Organizational Management. Lanham, Md:
AltaMira Press, 2012. Internet resource.
University of Washington Examples for Overtime Exempt Classified Staff & Professional
Staff. 2007. (Web).
http://www. washington. edu/admin/hr/roles/mgr/flexwork/flexsched/flexaltsched-examples. html (Accessed February 27, 2014).