Weingarten Rights

[bbr345]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? MN

If a supervisor is not investigating a complaint, misconduct, etc, but rather simply delivering disciplinary action without an investigation for something like continued low ratings on performance reviews, conduct that the supervisor themself witnessed, etc, does the supervisor have to afford the employee the right to union representation during the meeting in which they deliver the discipline? If there are no questions being asked but simply an explanation of why they are disciplining and the verbal or written warning being delivered to the employee, are Weingarten Rights necessary? If so, instead of meeting with the employee and their rep, can the supervisor just deliver the notice of discipline and specify that if they believe the action is being taken in error, they can respond by xx/xx/xxxx and any additional information will be taken into account before the disciplinary action becomes final? Does that satisfy the Wengarten rights due to the employee having the opportunity to elect to request a meeting to give a statement (with rep present) or submit a written statement with the help of their rep, etc?

Advice is much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[cbg]

It is the responsibility of the employee to ask for Weingarten. It is not the responsibility of the supervisor to offer them.

 

[justalayman]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? MN

If a supervisor is not investigating a complaint, misconduct, etc, but rather simply delivering disciplinary action without an investigation for something like continued low ratings on performance reviews, conduct that the supervisor themself witnessed, etc, does the supervisor have to afford the employee the right to union representation during the meeting in which they deliver the discipline? If there are no questions being asked but simply an explanation of why they are disciplining and the verbal or written warning being delivered to the employee, are Weingarten Rights necessary? If so, instead of meeting with the employee and their rep, can the supervisor just deliver the notice of discipline and specify that if they believe the action is being taken in error, they can respond by xx/xx/xxxx and any additional information will be taken into account before the disciplinary action becomes final? Does that satisfy the Wengarten rights due to the employee having the opportunity to elect to request a meeting to give a statement (with rep present) or submit a written statement with the help of their rep, etc?

Advice is much appreciated.

Thanks!

as cbg stated, the onus is upon the employee to request a representative be present with no obligation on the employer to even advise you of this.

Weingarten rights are only applicable if the employee is involved in an investigatory interview that could result in disciplinary actions. Anytime an employee is asked for a statement or asked to respond to a question to address a situation that could involved disciplinary actions would be considered to be such an interview. Therefor, if there are no questions asked by the employer or no request for a statement by the employee, Weingarten rights to not apply.

If so, instead of meeting with the employee and their rep, can the supervisor just deliver the notice of discipline and specify that if they believe the action is being taken in error, they can respond by xx/xx/xxxx and any additional information will be taken into account before the disciplinary action becomes final?

the rights are not applicable here because the employee is not asked to provide a response. The fact the disciplinary action has already been meted out also means the time to invoke one's Weingarten rights is already passed.

If there are no questions being asked but simply an explanation of why they are disciplining and the verbal or written warning being delivered to the employee, are Weingarten Rights necessary?

again, Weingarten rights apply to an investigatory interview that may lead to disciplinary actions. In your examples, that investigation has apparently already been completed and the discipline is being meted out.

Does that satisfy the Wengarten rights due to the employee having the opportunity to elect to request a meeting to give a statement (with rep present) or submit a written statement with the help of their rep, etc?

electing to request a meeting is not a right provided by your Weingarten Rights. There is no such right not is there a right to submit a statement. Weingarten rights simply allow a person being interviewed to demand union representation during the interview.