Question

         The grievant is a skilled welder for a job shop fabricator of specialized

        components for aircraft fuselages which employs 100 people, 75 of whom

        of are in the union. The grievant was discharged for violation of the plant

        rule prohibiting the use or sale of drugs on employer property and working

        under the influence of drugs. The use of prescription or over-the –counter

        drugs requires prior approval from the medical department. A first violation

        of the rule results in discipline up to and including discharge.                             

              Management indicates that the grievant was staring into space at his welder’s bench and that is eyes were red and glassy and that some of his speech seemed slurred. Management discharged the grievant on the spot.

               The grievant indicated that he had been working under difficult circumstances over the last few weeks due to the fact that his daughter has recently moved back into his home with her two children (ages 4 years and 9 months) due to a divorce. He also pulled a muscle in his neck and has been seeing a physical therapist from time to time. The night before his discharge was the third night in a row he had been awakened by the baby. At 4:00 am he took an over-the-counter sleeping pill. When his neck started to really act up at work, the grievant took to a painkiller that his brother-in-law had left over after a recent surgery. When management approached him he was in a bit of a fog and certainly in no mood to talk.

Apply Interest-Based Problem Solving to the issue of the employee, under the influence of a prescription pain killer.?

Answer 1

Answer:

Interest-based problem solving is an issue resolution process that addresses individual and group differences. Participants work together to reach agreement by sharing information and remaining creative and flexible, rather than by taking adversarial positions.

The employee should have taken the prescription from the medical department before actually consuming the drugs of various types for curing various ailments. Working at the workshop under the influence of the drugs would lead to a fatal accident that may bring the company under the laws of OSHA.

Thus, employee should be given with the paid leaves for certain days by consulting with the medical officer of the company or from outside the company. When the employee starts feeling safe and healthy, and when he resolves his personal issue in such a way that they do not coincide with his professional life, then only he should be recalled at the work.