13 Tips: Working Effectively With Unions - Workers’ Compensation: Designing & Implementing a Return-to-work Policy

Companies with unions face very different and unique challenges not faced by non-union companies. Consider these 15 Tips in designing and implementing an effective return-to-work program.

13 Tips for Employers with Unions

1. Determine what management rights you may already have to implement a return-to-work program.

2. Negotiate counterproductive clauses out of the collective bargaining agreement.

3. Consider buying out in negotiations particularly onerous clauses, such as minimum manning provisions, limitations on temporary transfer of employees and prohibition on work out of classification.

4. Obtain top management commitment to the program. Educate in-house counsel.

5. Communicate the program to the unions, employees and supervisors by sitting down and talking with them. Approach the most receptive unions first. Use them as a selling point before approaching more difficult unions.

6. Where possible, eliminate collateral source payments, such as long-term disability, short-term disability and use of vacation and sick time, effectively allowing employees to earn more when they don’t work than when they do.

7. Show the employees and unions how much workers’ compensation costs the company with sound factual information.

8. Use a comparison showing how much in sales it takes to pay for injuries.

9. Relate the costs to the financial stability of the company and to the impact on profit sharing plans.

10. Get signed waivers to avoid future claims, such as American with Disability (ADA) claims. Consider employer legal responsibilities under the ADA, and remind the union of their own obligations to support these legal requirements.

11. Request “withdrawal cards” before lump sum settlements are authorized.

12. Share savings with employees who participate in the company’s return-to-work program. Add this to bonuses, not to wages, so it does not become an ongoing obligation.

13. Have a company representative attend all hearings to describe the job requirements and offer details as needed.

For more information and tools, see WC Cost Reduction Tips. There are several free forms and tools on the site.

Robert Elliott, senior vice president, Amaxx Risks Solutions, Inc. has worked successfully for 20 years with many industries to reduce Workers’ Compensation costs by 20-50%. His clients have included airlines, health care, manufacturing, printing/publishing, pharmaceuticals, retail, hospitality and others. Contact him at: Robert_Elliott@reduceyourworkerscomp.com or 860-553-6604.

http://www.articlesbase.com/authors/robert-elliott/91473.htm

Corus trade unions offer pay cut to save factory: report

LONDON (AFP) — Trade unions at Indian-owned steel group Corus have proposed a 10 percent pay cut for the next six months in an attempt to avoid a factory closure in Wales, the Financial Times reported Thursday.

The Anglo-Dutch group, which was bought last year by India's Tata Steel for 13.7 billion dollars, faces falling demand in Europe amid a sharp global economic downturn and has already slashed output.

The FT said that three British trade unions proposed the steep pay cut in a bid to save the Llanwern steel factory in southern Wales, which employs about 1,000 people. Corus has approximately 25,000 staff in Britain.

"Representatives would accept a 10 percent decrease for everybody, from the bottom to the top of the company," the financial newspaper cited a senior trade union official as saying.

The FT said that no agreement had yet been reached but added that talks would continue Thursday and over the next fortnight.

Last month, Corus decided to cut its production by 30 percent over the next six months in response to flagging demand.

The group has already shut three blast furnaces in Britain and the Netherlands as part of the output reduction.

Labour movement gets recognition at UN climate change conference

The United Nations (UN) body on climate change has formally acknowledged the contribution of the labour movement to the debate on green issues.

The UN body dealing with climate change, under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, granted the International Trade Union Confederation the select formal status of “official constituency” in the climate change process. The ITUC was conferred this status during the UN climate change conference in Poznan, Poland, which began on 1 December and ends on 12 December.

ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder said: “Trade unions believe climate change is not only an environmental issue, but also is about social rights and rights to development, and that is the contribution we bring to the UN process.”

He said that combating climate change would result in huge transformations in production and that whether new jobs were created or how the labour movement responded would depend on how these were managed.

Trade unions are specifically calling for a “just transition framework” to be introduced into the negotiations to promote opportunities offered by the "green economy" – including green and decent jobs.

“The UN must place workers and workplaces at the core of its strategy to tackle climate change,” said Ryder. “Unions are calling for innovative multilateral solutions, without which the main victims of climate change will be the workers, in particular in developing countries.”

Alana Dave, ITF Education Officer who is also working on climate change said: “Transport workers will feel the impact of climate change policies. That’s why it’s crucial that trade unionists who represent them can give their concerns a voice in the climate change discussions and present alternatives.”

Read the full trade union statement on climate change at: http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/No_45__TradeUnions_ClimateChange_COP14.pdf
http://www.itfglobal.org

Tunisia: Trial of trade union leaders a travesty of justice

Amnesty International is calling on the Tunisian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all those arrested and tried for exercising peacefully their right to freedom of expression and assembly. Others should be retried in fair proceedings in line with Tunisia’s international obligations.

The organization issued its appeal after yesterday’s prison sentences handed down to 38 trade union leaders and protesters in unfair trial proceedings for their involvement in demonstrations in the Gafsa area.

“The verdict and sentences have been a subversion of justice and they should not be allowed to stand,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Middle East and North Africa Deputy Programme Director at Amnesty International.

A Gafsa Court handed down prison terms of up to 10 years against 33 trade union activists and protesters who were accused of leading the unrest against unemployment and high living costs in the first half of this year in the phosphate-rich Gafsa region in south-east Tunisia. Four were tried in absentia.

Charges included “forming a criminal group with the aim of destroying public and private property” and “armed rebellion and assault on officials during the exercise of their duties”. They were among the hundreds arrested after a wave of protests against unemployment and high living costs that wracked the phosphate-rich Gafsa region in south-east Tunisia in the first half of this year.

“The Tunisian authorities must immediately stop criminalizing social protest. Instead of trying peaceful protesters and trade unionists, the authorities should investigate the allegations of torture previously raised by the defendants,” added Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.

Amnesty International is concerned that serious violations of fair trial standards have been committed, including that the defence lawyers were not able to present the case of their clients; the defendants were not interrogated in court and the demands of the lawyers that their clients be medically examined for trace of possible torture and to call and cross-examine witnesses were rejected by the court.

Yesterday’s verdict came amid reports of a heavy security presence. Security forces were deployed along the roads leading to the court as well as in main access roads to the city of Gafsa. The roads leading to the court were said to have been barred by the security forces who prevented a number of human rights activists from reaching the court.

“The trial raises yet again questions as to the independence of the judiciary in Tunisia and shows the Tunisian authorities’ determination to quell any independent voices inside the country,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.

The leader of trade union and spokesperson for the Movement of Social Protest in Gafsa, Adnan Hajji was sentenced, along with six others, to 10 years’ imprisonment in the trial. The rest received prison sentences ranging from two to six years, including at least eight suspended sentences. Journalist Fahem Boukadous and France-based human rights activist Mouheiddine Cherbib, received, respectively, six and two years in absentia.

http://www.amnestyusa.org