GRIEVING A FAILURE TO MENTOR OR DEVELOP EMPLOYEES
Very few labor agreements or grievances address an employee’s right to career development opportunities. But a new case out of the EEOC suggests that this is a field union reps should think more aggressively about. The Commission upheld an employee’s claim of sex discrimination in how the agency chose to mentor people and detail them into career enhancing situations. To reach that conclusion the EEOC, an arm of the federal government, decided that the denial of career development opportunities can be just as much of an adverse action against an employee as termination or failure to promote. Consequently, union reps stand on firm ground now when they ask to address those issues in negotiations or file a grievance over them. For example, … Continue reading