What, if any, violation of the law did apollo corporation commit?

Apollo Corporation may be charged with unfair labor practices as identified in the section 8 of the Wagner Act or the National Labor Relations Board (Belcourt, 2004 p597). The discharge of Thomas can be a quantified as discriminating in regard to hiring or tenure of employees to discourage union membership. This is evident because Thomas was only discharged after he contacted the union representatives of the Brotherhood of Machine Engineers and started the campaign for unionization. 2. What arguments will Jean Lipski and Bob Thomas use to support their cases?

Jean Lipski would justify her actions by citing the previous performance evaluations of Thomas, she may argue that Thomas have been a poor worker for the last couple of years and with the intensifying of the HR policies to strengthen performance standards, Thomas had to be let go because he was performing below standard and can be a liability to the company. Lipski could also say that Thomasleadershipin the efforts to unionize might be a desperate action to secure his future in the company.

Bob Thomas on the other hand could also counter argue that he was discharged for his involvement in the efforts to unionize. He could cite the fact that he has been receiving below standard performance ratings and yet he has not been reprimanded in the past or at present. His termination could be a malicious action against his involvement and leadership in the efforts to organize the employee union. He could further argue that the company wanted to stop the employees from forming a union and his termination contained that message. The company’s action is a direct violation of the employees’ right to organize.

3. List things that managers should not do lest they commit unfair labor practices. Managers should be aware of unfair labor practices in order to protect themselves from being accused of the same. Managers should avoid making statements against unions and in general organizing efforts of employees. This would appear asdiscriminationagainst union members and any actions thereafter can be interpreted within this context, and since organizing is a basic right of the employee, the manager would be curtailing the rights of the employees (Belcourt, 2004 p597).

Managers should also not hire, promote or terminate employees on the basis of their union membership or support, gender, race and even religion. Moreover, managers must not abuse their authority in terms of giving out undue sanctions, not giving the employee due process and coercing or threatening employees to agree to their policies.

References

Belcourt, M. (2004). Managing HR 4th ed. Canada: Thomson Nelson pp. 594-637. Hollenbeck, N. & Wright, G. (2007). Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 2nd ed. Boston: McGraw Hill.