Why union officials are likely to oppose flexible work hours and other innovative work schedules
Over time, union officials have vehemently opposed flexible work hours and other innovative work schedules. On the face value, it would seem that such flexible work hours are a boost to both the officials and the workers. One would easily be misled to think that workers get to benefit more if they opt for flexible work hours. This is wrong. In fact, accepting this approach has various negative effects, hence the reason why union officials are against it.
The main reason as to why such flexible and innovative schedules are opposed is based on the possibility of elimination of certain benefits (Wechsler, 2002). If the work hours can be made flexible, one consequence that will arise is that employees will lose their overtime rights. Most legislations on employment stipulate that employees must be rightly compensated for any overtime work they do. This has been found to motivate a number of employees, to the benefit of the firms they work in. Union officials have always fought for these rights to be implemented. Making the work hours, as a matter of fact, will mean that these overtime rights will be scrubbed away. Fossum argues that taking this approach may have negative consequences on the employees. With time, the employers may opt to do away with the overtime benefits (Fossum, 2009). This may bring about undesirable effects on the part of employees.
The second reason as to why such schedules are opposed is because such schedules cannot be given to all employees at a time (Caplan, 2002). They can only be accorded to some employees. This is because of the nature of the functions that every worker performs in an organization, which differ in terms of importance. Introducing these schedules will be prejudicial to certain categories of employees. To avoid this, union officials oppose flexible work schedules
References
Caplan, J. (2009). Women, the Workplace, and Unions in International Perspective.International Labor and Working-Class History, 35, 62. doi:10.1017/s0147547900009078
Fossum, J. A. (2009). Labor Relations, Development, Structure, Process. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. (Chapters 8 & 9).
Wechsler, R. (2002). Unions and the Quality of Work Life. International Labor and Working-Class History, 22, 60. doi:10.1017/s0147547900007912
