What if your employees discuss wages with each other?
Q. Recently some of my employees were given a pay raise. It was not an across-the-board increase. One of my employees, who tends to be a troublemaker anyway, starting discussing his wage increase with other staff members and causing them to be dissatisfied with their raises. We have a policy prohibiting employees from discussing their pay with each other. Can we fire this troublemaker for violating our policy?
A. Sorry, but a “go-ahead” to terminate this employee could get your business into serious trouble.
Some employers feel this is one of the greatest employee-induced irritations there is to deal with and they yearn to exile the employee. But under labor laws, and court decisions based on these laws and public policy, it is an unfair labor practice to discipline or dismiss an employee for discussing wage levels and the increases with other employees.
The bottom line is, your employees have the protected right to join together in discussions and activities in an effort to promote their mutual welfare. And you, the employer, must not interfere with or threaten employees for using this right.
