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Different Treament of Employees

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sloaner14

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ok

I am a teacher at a vocational school and am experiencing unequal treatment of employees. There are 30+ teachers here and we are a held accountable by Policy & Procedure manual. The issue is teachers leaving students unattended in the classroom, even if it is to take a quick bathroom break. The problem is that not all teachers are held to this policy, as some teachers have left students unattended for 30 minutes at a time. It also never seems to be a problem unless it is myself or a couple of other teachers.

We have had a change in administration this year and this enforcement is coming from above my supervisor. It doesn't seem fair that if administration is wanting to hold us accountable, but doesn't enforce this with other teachers. Yes, there are a couple of things that lead me to believe that I am being singled out. If I find out that policy is only being enforced for a select few and not everyone, do I have a case to file a grievance?
 


Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ok

I am a teacher at a vocational school and am experiencing unequal treatment of employees. There are 30+ teachers here and we are a held accountable by Policy & Procedure manual. The issue is teachers leaving students unattended in the classroom, even if it is to take a quick bathroom break. The problem is that not all teachers are held to this policy, as some teachers have left students unattended for 30 minutes at a time. It also never seems to be a problem unless it is myself or a couple of other teachers.

We have had a change in administration this year and this enforcement is coming from above my supervisor. It doesn't seem fair that if administration is wanting to hold us accountable, but doesn't enforce this with other teachers. Yes, there are a couple of things that lead me to believe that I am being singled out. If I find out that policy is only being enforced for a select few and not everyone, do I have a case to file a grievance?
If you are a member of a union, then your recourse is through the union. Beyond that, you haven't described anything illegal.
 

eerelations

Senior Member
If you are a member of a union, then your recourse is through the union. Beyond that, you haven't described anything illegal.
...unless you believe the reason you believe you're being singled out is your race, gender, religion, age (if you're over 40) or disability.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
Contrary to popular belief, there is nothing whatsoever illegal about treating employees differently, enforcing rules selectively or "singling employees out". An employer can have different rules for each and every employee and there's nothing illegal about it. There can be good and valid reasons for holding some employees accountable to a different standard than others.

It is only illegal if the basis for the difference in treatment is a characteristic protected by law, and at least initially, the burden of proof is on you to show that to be the case.

So. Whatcha got?
 
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LdiJ

Senior Member
Contrary to popular belief, there is nothing whatsoever illegal about treating employees differently. enforcing rules selectively or "singling employees out". An employer can have different rules for each and every employee and there's nothing illegal about it. There can be good and valid reasons for holding some employees accountable to a different standard than others.

It is only illegal if the basis for the difference in treatment is a characteristic protected by law, and at least initially, the burden of proof is on you to show that to be the case.

So. Whatcha got?
I agree 100%, unless you have a union and a union contract. Then you should talk to your union rep, as has already been suggested. Union contract can have al kinds of different clauses in them and we could not tell you if your contract might or might not address something like this.

However, one glaring example I can give you of why some teachers might be singled out is if that teacher has a particular type of students in their classrooms that need constant, direct attention. I was the PTA president for my daughter's elementary school many years ago and I kept regular daily hours at the school, and was called upon to supervise classrooms in emergency and sometimes not so emergency, situations.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
I know what you're trying to say, L, and you're right, but let me clarify.

EVEN IF YOU HAVE A UNION CONTRACT OR CBA that expressly dictates the policy in question and how it is to be addressed for all employees, it is still not illegal to treat employees differently. It *might* depending on the exact wording of the policy, be a contract breach and that would be handled by the union. But it simply is not a violation of law except as already indicated.
 

commentator

Senior Member
There are several steps that a professional can go through to resolve a "workplace problem" And you're doing the first and most important, you're establishing exactly what you can and cannot legally do about the problem. Are there laws or restrictions in the workplace that will protect you from unfair treatment. You have an answer. Whether or not your case will fall into one of the rather rare circumstances where it would be illegal to treat employees differently, your next step is exactly the same.

You must look at your behavior. Is what you did and got in trouble for, REGARDLESS of what someone else is doing and getting away with, appropriate for you to do, and the best way to achieve whatever it was you were trying to achieve. Even if this is a rest room break, look only at your own situation. Is there someone you should have asked to take over supervision of your class? Is there a procedure in place to handle this? If so, did you follow it? What would you rather have go on instead? In other words, would it be appropriate if you and the other people behaved exactly the same and all left your classrooms for up to thirty minutes at a time unsupervised? Do you want this to be okay, or do you just want to make sure that other people get in trouble for doing it, the same as you did?

If you really feel that you were treated unfairly and that you are being treated unfairly in an on-going manner, that you have a legitimate complaint instead of a feeling, you will next need to try to solve the problem at the lowest possible level. In other words, you reasonably and professionally inform your supervisor of the problem you believe is occurring (that you are being treated differently than your co workers.) Even in EEOC related grievances where a complaint is filed, it is necessary for the person complaining to make some effort to resolve the situation at the appropriate level BEFORE they take it higher. Else the supervisor and certainly the next level up, they can say, "We didn't even know there was a problem, and if we had known it, we'd have fixed it!" And they're completely absolved.

So your first step, if you wish to complain about being singled out and treated differently for what you believe to be an illegal reason would be to bring this to the attention of your supervisor and attempt to get the problem resolved. If they refuse to listen to you, or retaliate by firing you, of course you'd have a reason to take the issue further, and would want to file a complaint with EEOC. Remember, not all singling out or treating differently is going to be illegal. If you make a big deal and complain, and you have no union to protect you, and no real grievance procedure, your employer in an "at will" state could very well make you an ex-employee simply because you are complaining about this. In an at will state, a person can be terminated for pretty much any reason, fair or not, reasonable or not. Unemployment insurance if terminated without a good cause is pretty much the only recourse. Make sure you have a legitimate complaint and that is something the employer could reasonably resolve. It doesn't seem to me that demanding to be "treated the same" as other teachers who are getting away with something that is probably not a good thing isn't a reasonable request. Perhaps asking the administrators to get you some classroom help so that you could take necessary breaks would be appropriate, regardless of what others are doing.

Many times in school systems with tenure, the most short term, untenured teachers do not have the same leeway in their behavior as the long term tenured teachers. That's just the way it is. They're going to be testing you and determining who gets to get into that job security situation, and they want very much to get rid of the people who are going to be problem employees before they have taught long enough to be tenured. That could be part of the issue and the reason you are treated differently.
 

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