Organizing with one another is often beneficial for employees. They can ensure a safe working environment and negotiate as a group for competitive wages, as well as reasonable benefits. However, collective bargaining and unionization can be frustrating for employers who often want to keep staffing costs as low as possible. Workers who understand their rights and who work with one another to assert them are harder for employers to bully and manipulate. They may also cost the company more, as they may work collectively to ensure fair pay and appropriate benefits for all workers.
One of the ways that employers deter workers from unionizing involves adopting company policies that prohibit discussions about wages and benefits. Can an employer punish workers who tell their co-workers what they earn or ask about other people’s pay?
Wage discussions have legal protection
The ability to transparently discuss current wages and benefits is critical to effective organizing. As such, there are legal protections for such conversations at the federal level. Employers can include policies that claim that discussing wages is prohibited in training materials and handbooks.
However, they cannot actually enforce those palaces. Punishing workers for engaging in protected workplace activities, such as working to organize with coworkers, is unlawful employer retaliation. If companies demote or fire workers because they disclosed their wages or asked others about their pay, those actions could provide the grounds for a lawsuit.
Keeping records of wage discussions and how a company responds can help workers assert themselves when employment law violations occur. An employment lawsuit can potentially compensate workers who have been unfairly punished for discussing their wages or engaging in other attempts to organize with their co-workers.
