Cross-training is typically viewed as a positive move by HR, but an HR generalist maintains that her required participation in cross-training amounted to a demotion—allegedly imposed on her in retaliation for reporting discriminatory employment practices to her employer.
What happened
On April 30, 2007, “Rose” was hired as an HR generalist by Infotech Aerospace Services, Inc. (IAS), a Puerto Rico-based corporation specializing in the design and supply of aerospace products for military, commercial, and industrial application. Her primary responsibilities included overseeing employee compensation and benefits.
Shortly after being hired, Rose, who had told the company that she had experience preparing affirmative action plans (AAPs) for her previous employer, was asked to prepare IAS’s 2008 AAP. Her timely completion of the assignment was important because IAS could not receive contracts with the federal government without the plan.
In 2009, Rose submitted the 2008 AAP to the HR manager, who described it as being “6 months late,” “incomplete,” and “a draft.” IAS hired an outside consultant, who found numerous errors and deficiencies in the AAP after reviewing it.
Rose’s version of the AAP purported to find compensation discrimination at the company, but it did not provide any explanation of the methodology used or information on which that conclusion was based. The consultant completed a corrected AAP and has prepared IAS’s annual AAP ever since.
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Meanwhile, in December 2008, before Rose had submitted her version of the AAP, the HR manager told another supervisor that he planned to cross-train four HR employees, including Rose, in other areas within the HR department. His goal was to create a more flexible workforce and “to ensure that all functions of the Human Resources department could be performed, even in the absence of the employee who usually performed [them].”
Rose was notified of her participation in cross-training in 2009 and was later assigned to new “business partner” responsibilities, which made her “point person of contact” for employees in various IAS departments. Another HR employee assumed Rose’s previous compensation responsibilities.
Rose had participated in a similar cross-training exercise in January 2008. Her job title, salary, and benefits did not change, and her performance review for 2008 was favorable. However, she viewed the 2009 cross-training assignment as a demotion.
In March 2009, she was asked to prepare a table comparing the salary, experience, education, and other compensation-related factors of a female employee and her male coworker after the female employee complained about an alleged disparity in their compensation. The HR manager and IAS’s general manager both told Rose that all information related to the investigation should be kept confidential and could not be disclosed without the HR manager’s approval.
The female employee had a panic attack at work a few months later, and the Puerto Rico State Insurance Fund Corporation (SIF), which administers Puerto Rico’s workers’ compensation program, visited IAS to investigate. Rose, who was interviewed by the SIF investigator, later admitted to faxing—without authorization—confidential salary information to the SIF about IAS’s internal investigation of the salary discrimination complaint and to having confidential salary information on her “pen drive” and her personal “H: drive” on IAS’s server, which are violations of IAS policy.
Rose was placed on a 3-day paid administrative leave and was told that, upon her return to work on June 22, 2009, she would receive a written warning informing her that future disciplinary infractions might result in termination of her employment.
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In tomorrow’s Advisor, we’ll get the rest of the story, and we’ll learn about a comprehensive online library of ready-to-use compliance training courses on dozens of key HR topics.
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