Silverstone
Junior Member
Illinois.
I am a female janitor working for a contractor that has permanent on-site personnel at a high-profile energy concern in Illinois.
Recently, circumventing the union contract, via loosey-goosey language, management hired two male janitors at $4.00 an hour more than I make for performing the SAME and I do mean the SAME work duties, with a glitch, they are saying their titles are "Permanent Temporary Leads". Is there such a thing as a "Permanent Temporary Lead?"
A Lead IS a higher title than I have, I just work
This has never happened before; most, not all, lead positions at this location and the others were always posted for the union members to bid on and have their seniority and qualifications taken into account, most were always filled with in-house permanent employees before hiring off the street. At least this is what past practices would show.
These particular two jobs were NOT posted, nor were any of the permanent union members seniority or qualifications taken into account, gender aside. Nor were any of the permanent union members asked if they'd like to apply for the job.
Management says they can do this because nothing in the contract states otherwise; although past practices show otherwise. The contract IS loosey-goosey, lots of loopholes.
Something else that has never happened is, they now have THREE (3) leads on one shift, this too is unprecendented during the term of this current contract, and doesn't really meet any legitimate company needs, but I understand, the company can do what it wants, if it wants three leads on one shift, and wants to pay them, it surely can.
However, I believe they are violating the Equal Pay Act in that I perform the same job duties, even though they are supposedly "leads" they do not perform FT lead duties, they are only back-up occasionally and stand-in.
Now, the real story is they were hired, although this would be considered heresay, because one of the guys knows the energy company's cognizant to the contractor/union; the other guy's brother is head of security, basically cronyism and nepotism. The energy company's cognizant TOLD our contractor to hire these two men and slap the title "permanent temporary leads" so that they could justify the higher pay for same duties, because both men said they would not stay on at $9.00 per hour, and well, they have a hard time getting people in the door and keeping them, it's hard work, low pay.
They further stated that they needed the men for these positions to clean the men's bathrooms due to privacy concerns (and heresay to get the job done, which was a slap in the face, my bathrooms are perfect) and "to get the jobs done".
However, the men do not clean and never have since they've been hired, ALL the men's restrooms throughout the facilitiy, nor do they do so at the other facilities (I clean my men's restroom every day, I'm a female?). And actually just one of the men hired does bathrooms, the other does the garbage route. It seems these rules are just applying to THIS facility surrounding these two men that were currently hired at a higher rate of pay than the lower-end females. We have 5 other facilities our contractor services for the same energy company.
Now it gets even more interesting. Yesterday, we had ONE of the three (the REAL lead) announce that she is leaving to take an Assistant Manager position at one of the other facilities, this was totally UKNOWN when they hired these men, as they had an Assistant Manager unexpectedly quit at the other facility, and our real lead (female) wanted out of this facility so took it.
As it was announced, our Account Manager asked the team if anyone wanted to come to first shift and do the 1st floor (the route the real "female" lead was doing prior to announcing she would be leaving).
So, since I knew this was my opportunity to say yes at $13.00 per hour v. $9.00 per hour, in a LEAD position, not general cleaning, I raised my hand and stated that I would take the 1st floor on day's if she would give me a lead position and the $13.00 per hour. She him hawed around and stated that "my group of clients" would miss me, and would give me no affirmative answer.
I have a year of experience at this plant over these two gentlemen, I have all the same training, plus equivalent experience, in fact, I may have more qualifications than one of them overall even though I've only been a janitor for one year. I have previous management experience, albeit not as a janitor, but in a large utility company and I have received excellent reviews from my clients, and have a good work record, nothing they could use against me; yet it appears they are simply going to take one of the "Permanent Temporary Leads" slap them in this job and make them permanent.
If this happens, do I have a legitimate EEOC complaint? (Since it appears the union's hands are tied due to lack of language in contract covering these types of actions?).
Oh P.S. They also tried to pull the rabbit out of the hat, that overall, they have more female leads than male leads, so they are equalizing their men/female lead ratio. What happened to seniority, merit, and qualifications?
Sorry for the length, but lots of nuiances in this; it appears they are deliberately blurring words, titles, duties in order to justify paying these two men higher salaries for performing substanitally the same job duties.
If I have a good chance of prevailing, although I've never in my 30 year work career (and God knows I have had opportunities) filed an EEOC, I will, this is just too blantant in my opinion.
Oh, another thing, our Account Manager, when we were (the whole group) complaining about this unethical hiring practice, told us "we were free to leave if we didn't like it and she would "escort" us out" and take our badges"
In other words, shut up, we don't want to hear anymore about it, else you're fired. That was the icing on the cake. We can't even voice our concerns about it without being threatened with being fired.
I'm just plum-out demoralized. In close thanks for any advice or direction that can be given.
.
I am a female janitor working for a contractor that has permanent on-site personnel at a high-profile energy concern in Illinois.
Recently, circumventing the union contract, via loosey-goosey language, management hired two male janitors at $4.00 an hour more than I make for performing the SAME and I do mean the SAME work duties, with a glitch, they are saying their titles are "Permanent Temporary Leads". Is there such a thing as a "Permanent Temporary Lead?"
A Lead IS a higher title than I have, I just work
This has never happened before; most, not all, lead positions at this location and the others were always posted for the union members to bid on and have their seniority and qualifications taken into account, most were always filled with in-house permanent employees before hiring off the street. At least this is what past practices would show.
These particular two jobs were NOT posted, nor were any of the permanent union members seniority or qualifications taken into account, gender aside. Nor were any of the permanent union members asked if they'd like to apply for the job.
Management says they can do this because nothing in the contract states otherwise; although past practices show otherwise. The contract IS loosey-goosey, lots of loopholes.
Something else that has never happened is, they now have THREE (3) leads on one shift, this too is unprecendented during the term of this current contract, and doesn't really meet any legitimate company needs, but I understand, the company can do what it wants, if it wants three leads on one shift, and wants to pay them, it surely can.
However, I believe they are violating the Equal Pay Act in that I perform the same job duties, even though they are supposedly "leads" they do not perform FT lead duties, they are only back-up occasionally and stand-in.
Now, the real story is they were hired, although this would be considered heresay, because one of the guys knows the energy company's cognizant to the contractor/union; the other guy's brother is head of security, basically cronyism and nepotism. The energy company's cognizant TOLD our contractor to hire these two men and slap the title "permanent temporary leads" so that they could justify the higher pay for same duties, because both men said they would not stay on at $9.00 per hour, and well, they have a hard time getting people in the door and keeping them, it's hard work, low pay.
They further stated that they needed the men for these positions to clean the men's bathrooms due to privacy concerns (and heresay to get the job done, which was a slap in the face, my bathrooms are perfect) and "to get the jobs done".
However, the men do not clean and never have since they've been hired, ALL the men's restrooms throughout the facilitiy, nor do they do so at the other facilities (I clean my men's restroom every day, I'm a female?). And actually just one of the men hired does bathrooms, the other does the garbage route. It seems these rules are just applying to THIS facility surrounding these two men that were currently hired at a higher rate of pay than the lower-end females. We have 5 other facilities our contractor services for the same energy company.
Now it gets even more interesting. Yesterday, we had ONE of the three (the REAL lead) announce that she is leaving to take an Assistant Manager position at one of the other facilities, this was totally UKNOWN when they hired these men, as they had an Assistant Manager unexpectedly quit at the other facility, and our real lead (female) wanted out of this facility so took it.
As it was announced, our Account Manager asked the team if anyone wanted to come to first shift and do the 1st floor (the route the real "female" lead was doing prior to announcing she would be leaving).
So, since I knew this was my opportunity to say yes at $13.00 per hour v. $9.00 per hour, in a LEAD position, not general cleaning, I raised my hand and stated that I would take the 1st floor on day's if she would give me a lead position and the $13.00 per hour. She him hawed around and stated that "my group of clients" would miss me, and would give me no affirmative answer.
I have a year of experience at this plant over these two gentlemen, I have all the same training, plus equivalent experience, in fact, I may have more qualifications than one of them overall even though I've only been a janitor for one year. I have previous management experience, albeit not as a janitor, but in a large utility company and I have received excellent reviews from my clients, and have a good work record, nothing they could use against me; yet it appears they are simply going to take one of the "Permanent Temporary Leads" slap them in this job and make them permanent.
If this happens, do I have a legitimate EEOC complaint? (Since it appears the union's hands are tied due to lack of language in contract covering these types of actions?).
Oh P.S. They also tried to pull the rabbit out of the hat, that overall, they have more female leads than male leads, so they are equalizing their men/female lead ratio. What happened to seniority, merit, and qualifications?
Sorry for the length, but lots of nuiances in this; it appears they are deliberately blurring words, titles, duties in order to justify paying these two men higher salaries for performing substanitally the same job duties.
If I have a good chance of prevailing, although I've never in my 30 year work career (and God knows I have had opportunities) filed an EEOC, I will, this is just too blantant in my opinion.
Oh, another thing, our Account Manager, when we were (the whole group) complaining about this unethical hiring practice, told us "we were free to leave if we didn't like it and she would "escort" us out" and take our badges"
In other words, shut up, we don't want to hear anymore about it, else you're fired. That was the icing on the cake. We can't even voice our concerns about it without being threatened with being fired.
I'm just plum-out demoralized. In close thanks for any advice or direction that can be given.
.