Page 15-1
CHAPTER 15
EMPLOYEES AND THE CORPORATION
INTRODUCTION
Employees and employers are engaged in a critical relationship affecting the
corporation’s performance. There is a basic economic aspect to their association:
Employees provide labor for the firm, and employers compensate workers for their
PREVIEW CASES
Non-compete Agreements for Low-wage Jobs
Interviewer Requests Facebook Login Information from Job Applicant
Worker Schedules Stabilized at Starbucks
What is a fair pay level for workers? Who or what should determine wages—the free
market, the employer acting unilaterally, collective bargaining negotiations between
employers and unions, or government mandates such as minimum wage laws? Should
employers be permitted to require employees—even in low-level jobs—to sign non-
compete clauses?
Should employers, like the correctional services department in this example, have a right
to review job applicants’ social media pages? What information should be considered
private, and what should be considered public? What if the job was not in the correction
What is the best way to balance the employer’s need for flexibility and efficiency in
scheduling part-time workers’ hours with the employee’s need for predictability in
Page 15-2
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. THE EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP
II. WORKPLACE RIGHTS
A. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively
B. The Right to a Safe and Healthy Workplace
C. Job Security and the Right to Due Process
Teaching Tip: Rights of Employees
Students may be asked to consider the brief vignettes given in the
preview examples. What rights, as shown in Figure 15.1, are
illustrated by these mini-cases? Do any rights conflict? If so, which
should be given priority?
Teaching Tip: Fair Scheduling
The third preview case and Exhibit 15.A profile the issue of fair
scheduling. The website www.fairworkweek.org has several videos
that may be used to introduce this segment. Several short clips profile
workers whose lives have been disrupted by unpredictable work
schedules. Another clip, “Workshift: Fair Scheduling for Everyone,”
gives a general introduction to the issue. Yet another clip shows an
exchange at a Starbucks shareholder’s meeting between the CEO and
an employee over this issue. Instructors may ask students: Have you
personally ever experienced a problem with unpredictable scheduling?
What should be done about this by individual workers, companies, or
the government?
Teaching Tip: Workplace Health and Safety
An excellent video for use with the section of workplace health and
safety is “Deadly Oil Fields” (8:38), which aired on the PBS News
Hour on June 24, 2015, and may be found at www.pbs.org. It explores
the impact of weak regulatory oversight and complex ownership
structures on the occupational hazards of work in the Bakken oil fields
of North Dakota.
Page 15-3
III. FAIR WAGES AND INCOME INEQUALITY
IV. THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY IN THE WORKPLACE
A. Electronic Monitoring
B. Romance in the Workplace
C. Employee Drug Use and Testing
D. Alcohol Abuse at Work
E. Employee Theft and Honesty Testing
V. THE RIGHT TO BLOW THE WHISTLE AND FREE SPEECH IN THE
WORKPLACE
GETTING STARTED
KEY QUESTIONS AND CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
LO 15-1: Understanding workers’ rights to organize unions and bargain
collectively.
U.S. labor laws give most workers the right to organize unions and to bargain
Teaching Tip: Whistle-blowing
Various real corporate examples could be introduced into a class
discussion to explore factors that may cause an individual to blow the
whistle against a firm. How much harm must occur? How much
potential for harm is a sufficient motivator? How much privacy should
be given to an organization? Are internal whistle-blowing programs —
developed by many firms — adequate, or are they window dressing or
legal protection? The clash between an employee’s loyalty to an
organization and her or his duty to society or a corporate stakeholder is
a rich area for discussion.
Instructors may wish to use clips from the movie “The Insider,” which
is a fictionalized account based on the story of Jeffrey Wigand, who
blew the whistle on tobacco company Brown & Williamson.
Page 15-5
employee assistance programs (EAPs)
employment-at-will
ergonomics
labor union
living wage
INTERNET RESOURCES
www.aclu.org American Civil Liberties Union
www.afl-cio.org American Federation of Labor-Congress of
Industrial Organizations
www.business.com/human-resources Business.com (human resources topics)
www.drugfreeworkplace.org Institute for a Drug-Free Workplace
DISCUSSION CASE
THE UGLY SIDE OF BEAUTIFUL NAILS
Page 15-6
Discussion Questions
1. This section describes several “workplace rights.” Which of these rights are
violated in the nail salon industry, and what evidence do you have of this?
2. To what degree do you think managers in the nail salon industry would be
able to improve conditions voluntarily if they wished to do so, and why do
you think so?
3. What factors make it particularly difficult for workers in the nail industry
to organize to improve their own conditions, and how could these factors be
overcome?
Video Tip: The Nail Industry
The PBS News Hour aired an interview with the author of the New
York Times series on the nail industry on May 8, 2015, under the title
“Who Really Pays the Price for Those Beautiful Nails?” It runs 4:49
and may be accessed at www.pbs.org.
4. What factors make it particularly difficult for government policy makers and
regulators to make rules for the nail industry and enforce them? How could
these factors be overcome?
5. What do you think is the best way to improve conditions for workers in the
nail industry?
Teaching Tip: The Nail Industry
Students may be encouraged to research organizations that promote an
ethical nail industry, such as the California Health Nail Salon
Collaborative at www.cahealthynailsalons.org.