HRM Group - Assignment Maple Leaf Shoes Ltd.

Maple Leaf Shoes Ltd. is a medium-sized manufacturer of leather and vinyl shoes located in Wilmington, Ontario. It was started in 1969 and currently employs about 400 persons in its Wilmington plant and some 380 more in offices and warehouses throughout Canada. This company has recently experienced multiple human resources challenges and has decided to hire your team of HR consultants to straighten things out for them. Here are their issues:

Robert Clark, the president has just received a letter from the employees spokesperson, Sam Polanyi, warning him of dire consequences if the firm does not proceed slowly with automation in its local plant. Employees are being urged to adapt a work to rule tactic beginning next month if they are not involved in the automation process.

In addition, Clark has stated that he wants to institute a profit-sharing plan as he has heard from another companys president that these plans improve productivity, product quality and decreases absenteeism and turnover (although he hasnt shared those reasons with the employees representative, Polanyi). Sam quickly fired back stating Forget it. Profit sharing is a management gimmick whose only purpose is to make employees work harder and the company more profitable. And the risk is too great if there are no or low profits. What do we gain then nothing. We want to negotiate wages and benefits not profit sharing.

With the heavy competition from China, Korea and Malaysia the results on orders has been worrisome. In the last six months, the firm has lost two major retail suppliers in the United States both stating the sole reason being Maple Leafs high shoe prices.

Speaking of benefits, Polanyi has heard from the employees that they are interested in receiving flexible benefits instead of the current fixed benefit plan. Flexible benefits mean employees can choose the kind of benefits most useful to them which is not possible under the fixed one size fits all plan currently being used.

The recent warning from the human rights commission (HRC) did not help matters either. Apparently two female employees who had been denied supervisory promotions had complained to the commission. They had stated that the promotion criteria at the company had been discriminatory towards women. After preliminary investigation, the HRC had found their cases not strong enough to proceed further however it had warned the company about its concentration of women in low-paid jobs and its lack of clear job specifications for supervisory positions. It has advised the company that it needs to come up with a remedial plan within 12 months to address and clearly specify supervisory competencies and job specifications.

Finally, Clark has just been informed that Sam Johnson has advised his supervisor that he has just learned that he has AIDS. Sam thought it important to also tell Catherine Reading his co-worker that he has contracted AIDS so that she could take any necessary precautions. Both Johnson and Reading work in the cafeteria and have received stellar performance reviews and are valued company employees. Johnson has been with the company for 8 years, Reading for 12 years.

Catherine was quite troubled by this information and the next day she told her supervisor that she was refusing to work with Sam due to her fears. The supervisor asked her if she was refusing to obey his order to work with Sam and she replied I guess I am. I am scared to. The supervisor informed her that refusing to carry out his request was insubordination and sent her home. The supervisor then went to Clark for advice on what to do next. Clark wants to fire both of them for just cause as he thinks Johnson is a health & safety risk and Reading is guilty of insubordination. Better to get rid of problem employees quickly he believes.

You have met with some of the employees and your preliminary findings have shown some issues with how pay rates are determined. Your key findings are:

- Wages for hourly employees ranged from $16.00 per hour for employees during their probationary period to $28.00 per hour for the more skilled or experienced ones.

- The wage rates for different workers varied widely on the same job; those employees who were not visible minorities received approximately 18 percent more than those workers who were.

- On highly technical jobs, the firm paid a rate of 20 percent above prevailing wage rate; while all other jobs paid an average of 10 percent below the market rate.

- Production workers were eligible for a $200 draw each month if there were no accidents during the month.

- Turnover in the technical jobs was less than 2 percent; in all other jobs it was a whopping 25 percent.

1. Are there perhaps any underlying issues at Maple Leaf Shoes besides the obvious problems that you should have a look at in order to make the best recommendations to Clark? For instance, what might be causing the difference in wage rates