Labour Relationship

This document discusses a case of workplace violence and termination, focusing on the labour relationship between the employees involved. It explores the responsibilities of HR and provides guidance on how the manager should respond to the grievance. The document also includes a letter to the manager and references for further reading.

Running Head: Labour Relationship
Labour Relationship

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Labour Relationship
Table of Contents
Description of the Event 3
Responsibilities of the HR 4
Response to the grievance 4
Letter to the manager 7
References 8

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Description of the Event
On 15 March, Friday Randy Newman, an associate in the accounts department of this firm
reported that his coworker George Sanders arrived at work in an inebriated state and when
confronted caused a violent scene by attacking Mr Newman. Mr Sanders has been accused of
punching Mr Newman on the face a when other employees who were present at the scene tried to
restrain Mr Sanders he went into a fit of rage using profanity at anyone present in his vicinity
(Phillips, 2016). Mr. Sanders has a history of Alcohol abuse and has already had previous
warnings for being intoxicated at the workplace. Previous incidents did not involve violence and
thus Mr. Sanders was only suspended for 2 weeks and instructed by the management to seek help
for his addiction. The situation occurred at the start of the night shift on inside the offices of the
accounts department of the company that is situated on the 5th floor of this building. The
situation was witnessed by every employee present on the floor and they all have corroborated
with Mr. Newman's accusation. When the accusation was brought to the attention of the
management Mr. Sanders’ employment was immediately terminated as the company has a strict
no tolerance policy for violence in the workplace. The manager of the Accounts department Mr.
Ravi Mehta immediately arrived at the scene and personally saw to it that both parties receive
proper medical attention. Both Mr. Newman and Mr. Sanders were instructed to go home and
come in the next day for the matter to be addressed. Next a day an official report was filed
against Mr. Sanders by Mr. Newman of assault. Mr. Newman agreed that he would not file any
legal charges against the accused but hoped that the matter would be mitigated by the
management to his satisfaction. After his termination, Mr. Sanders has now come forward with a
wrongful termination grievance for the Breach of an Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair

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Dealing against the management. He stresses that though he was inebriated during the incident, it
was Mr. Newman who instigated violence and Mr. Sanders acted in self-defence.
From the above case it can be evaluated the the grievance in from=nt of the HR is Individual
grievance, as Mr Sanders ave come up with the notice thatbhis right has been violated.
Response of the Manager in handling cases of workplace violence are as follows:
● The first step is to analyse all the contributing factors that led to the event of Mfr Sanders
being terminated. An investigation needs to be undertaken under the supervision of the
manager to gather all the related facts and contextual indicators which including the
subject matter of the complaint and statements of the parties involved (Fute, Mengesha,
Wakgari & Tessema, 2015).
● Maintaing the goodwill in front og the union of employees in organisatoon needs to be
evaluated
● The manager should contact the HR department and the upper management immediately
and inform them of the situations so that future complications can be avoided (Ahmad,
Al-Rimawi, Masadeh, & Atoum, 2015). Such incidents can have legal consequences for
the whole company and the company needs to prepare to handle any legal situations.
● As per the case of Mr Sanders the Manager could get help of outside unbiased person to
evaluate the case scenario.
● It is the duty of the manager to oversee that all evidence and proceedings that occur after
the fact are logged in and put on the record (Jiao, et al. 2015). It is of utmost importance
that all evidence relevant to the case is properly recorded as for future legal challenges
that can be expected once an incident occurs.

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Responsibilities of the HR
● The HR should provide immediate assistance after a case of workplace violence occurs
and contact security and emergency services (Park, Cho, & Hong, 2015). Any injuries to
all parties involved should be addressed first before everything else.
● Better incorporation of payroll and compensation are under the responsibility of HR
● HR should participate in accordance with the manager and provide the manager with
whatever he or she may need to carry on with the investigation. An HR representative
needs to be present during the recording of witness statements and help the manager to
come to a decision.
● The HR needs to participate as required in the risk assessment procedure. The
repercussions of the incident need to thoroughly discuss and any case management
concerns need to be handled (Tee, Özçetin & Russell-Westhead, 2016).
● In the case of legal ramifications, the HR will have to ready and prepared with all the
evidence support their claims.
● Proper recruitment and selection ptocedure needs to be under the reposnsibility lof HR
Response to the grievance
● The meeting that will take place between the representatives of the company which
include the manager and an HR representative and the grieve along with a union
representative will take place on the 15th of April (Hanson, et al. 2015). Purpose of the
meeting is to address Mr. Sanders’ claim that he was not the aggravator and only acted in
self-defence.

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● The meeting should be conducted inside the HR department in the presence of legal
counsel and all relevant parties must be informed beforehand. All questions asked should
be relevant to the case and follow up questions should be repaired.
● All relevant evidence including witness statements should be kept at hand so that they
can be used in case any accusations are brought up (Hanson, Perrin, Moss, Laharnar &
Glass, 2015). A timeline needs to be prepared; the first part of the interview should only
include discussions regarding the incident itself. Every detail needs to be clarified, the
second part should address the accusation itself and all answers should be evaluated
without any bias.
● After the meeting, the manager should reevaluate all the evidence and incident report
based on the conclusions drawn at the meeting. The legal department needs to be
informed of all proceedings and the manager should act according to their advice.
● The manager needs to reinterview all relevant parties involved with the incident including
the witnesses who confirm that it was Me. Sanders who threw the first punch. All
relevant dates and names of the witnesses need to be catalogued and a clear timeline of
the incident should be created (Gluschkoff, et al. 2017). All relevant documents including
Mr’ Sanders past incident reports and proof that he was issued a warning before should
be kept at hand.
● Mr Sanders should be asked to clarify every accusation that he has made thoroughly and
in accordance to evidence (Boyle & Wallis, 2016). His claims should be treated without
any bias as he has the right to due process and will be provided so
● Questions that need to be asked during the investigation.

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○ Where you intoxicated during the event and if you were, why after repeated
warnings have you not addressed your issues with alcohol?
○ Explain your version of events thoroughly and justify why according to you was
Mr. Newman who has no history of such violence was provoked to attack you.
○ What were the immediate factors that led to the assault? Where did the altercation
take place? Describe the aftermath of the incident?
○ As everyone present at the scene confirm that it was you who instigated the
attack, what according to you is their motive to lie?
○ Can anyone corroborate your version of the events and if so why haven't they
come forward?

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Letter to the manager
HR department
SL Infotech, Calgary
25/3/2019
To
Mr. Ravi Mehta
Manager, Accounts Division
SL Infotech
Calgary, Canada
Sir,
Sub - Preparation of the Grievance response
In the case of the termination of Mr George Sanders for being intoxicated at work and
commitment workplace violence against Mr. Randy Newman, the HR department believes that
your actions were completely justified. After going through all the evidence it is clear that Mr.
Sanders was the one who instigated violence in that situation and in accordance to the zero
tolerance policy that the company has against workplace violence termination of employed was
justified. You are required to catalogue all relevant evidence, witness statements and documents
and contact the legal department and seek advice in case there are legal challenges. Thanking
you.

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Yours sincerely
Manager, HR

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References
Ahmad, M., Al-Rimawi, R., Masadeh, A., & Atoum, M. (2015). Workplace violence by patients
and their families against nurses: Literature review. International Journal of Nursing and
Health Science, 2(4), 46-55. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Muayyad_Ahmad/publication/280737957_Workpla
ce_Violence_by_Patients_and_Their_Families_Against_Nurses_Literature_Review/
links/55c5d31308aea2d9bdc3bc22/Workplace-Violence-by-Patients-and-Their-Families-
Against-Nurses-Literature-Review.pdf
Boyle, M. J., & Wallis, J. (2016). Working towards a definition for workplace violence actions in
the health sector. Safety in health, 2(1), 4. Retrieved from
https://safetyinhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40886-016-0015-8
Cheung, T., & Yip, P. S. (2017). Workplace violence towards nurses in Hong Kong: prevalence
and correlates. BMC public health, 17(1), 196. Retrieved from
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-017-4112-3
Fute, M., Mengesha, Z. B., Wakgari, N., & Tessema, G. A. (2015). High prevalence of
workplace violence among nurses working at public health facilities in southern Ethiopia.
BMC nursing, 14(1), 1. Retrieved from
https://bmcnurs.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12912-015-0062-1?
hostname=http://bmcnurs.biomedcentral.com
Gluschkoff, K., Elovainio, M., Hintsa, T., Pentti, J., Salo, P., Kivimäki, M., & Vahtera, J. (2017).
Organisational justice protects against the negative effect of workplace violence on

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teachers’ sleep: A longitudinal cohort study. Occup Environ Med, 74(7), 511-516.
Retrieved from https://oem.bmj.com/content/oemed/74/7/511.full.pdf
Hanson, G. C., Perrin, N. A., Moss, H., Laharnar, N., & Glass, N. (2015). Workplace violence
against homecare workers and its relationship with workers health outcomes: a cross-
sectional study. BMC public health, 15(1), 11. Retrieved from
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-014-1340-7
Jiao, M., Ning, N., Li, Y., Gao, L., Cui, Y., Sun, H., ... & Hao, Y. (2015). Workplace violence
against nurses in Chinese hospitals: a cross-sectional survey. BMJ open, 5(3), e006719.
Retrieved from https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/3/e006719?
itm_content=consumer&itm_medium=cpc&itm_source=trendmd&itm_term=0-
A&itm_campaign=bmjo
Park, M., Cho, S. H., & Hong, H. J. (2015). Prevalence and perpetrators of workplace violence
by nursing unit and the relationship between violence and the perceived work
environment. Journal of nursing scholarship, 47(1), 87-95. Retrieved from
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jnu.12112
Phillips, J. P. (2016). Workplace violence against health care workers in the United States. New
England journal of medicine, 374(17), 1661-1669. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/James_Phillips24/publication/
301686568_Workplace_Violence_against_Health_Care_Workers_in_the_United_States/
links/59e73509a6fdcc0e882d80db/Workplace-Violence-against-Health-Care-Workers-in-
the-United-States.pdf

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Tee, S., Özçetin, Y. S. Ü., & Russell-Westhead, M. (2016). Workplace violence experienced by
nursing students: A UK survey. Nurse education today, 41, 30-35. Retrieved from
http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/23461/7/bullying%20article%20R1.pdf