Human Resource Blog

Unfair Treatment & Wage Manipulation Arizona

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I am a waiter in a union, in a non-union state. I am experiencing unfair treatment from a supervisor such as disrespect, hostility, and anger in front of customers & co-workers. Unfair assigned duties, expectations,& standards/procedures that only i am subjected to then documented for being in violation when my work load at so said times exceeds that of 2+ Waiter’s, as well as tip manipulation.(in regards to sections/table assignments or lack of.( And sent on break right before peak periods during supervisors shifts. Others see & agree but haven’t documented this yet.I had lodged complaint previously & voiced my feelings to G.M. and other above managers about this and feel like a lot of this could be retaliation. Can my union help? Do I file a Grievance with H.R.? I Should add we’re both male & I’m white he’s Hispanic both heterosexual, but isn’t that hostile environment?

Yes, this treatment is unfair and no, this treatment probably isn’t retaliation or a hostile work environment.

Sending a waiter on break immediately before the rush can certainly have a negative impact on his tips. It’s also dumb, because if the restaurant could run with only 4 servers on the floor during the rush, why schedule 5 and have one on break? But it’s probably not illegal.

A “hostile work environment” doesn’t mean “my boss is being mean to me.” It means “my boss (or coworker) is being mean to me because of my race, color, religion, nationality, sex, age (over 40) or disability.” In order for a hostile work environment to exist, it must be ongoing and generally the employer must be aware of it.

In this situation, if the supervisor is picking on this waiter because he is male, or because he is not Hispanic, or because he is Caucasian, that would be a hostile work environment. If all the other servers are female, and they are treated better, that’s probably illegal discrimination based on sex, and perhaps a hostile work environment. But if other non-Hispanic, white, male servers are treated better, then it’s probably not a hostile work environment. It’s just a supervisor with a vendetta against a particular employee.

This is sometimes called a “personality conflict” although in this case it appears that the supervisor is doing all the conflicting.

Retaliation also has a very specific meaning in the HR world. It primarily concerns workers who have lodged a complaint of illegal discrimination or other illegal action. These workers, under several laws, are protected from negative actions based on their complaint. However, they can still be the target of discipline or termination based on their performance.

It’s impossible to determine whether or not filing a union grievance can help, without seeing a copy of the union contract. But, at this stage it probably can’t hurt. Since you’ve already discussed the problem with the GM, it’s probably a good idea to go to the HR department next.

In situations like this, the supervisor is often acting out of a concern about the employee’s performance. One way to address this problem is to sit down and have a neutral discussion with the supervisor, asking open-ended questions to try to understand his concerns.

It also might be a good time to start looking for a different job. The good thing about being a waiter is that it is usually not that difficult to change jobs.