Monday, March 30, 2015
Can a newspaper safely report an employment dispute, especially when it has political (or fairness) implications?
An article by Chico Harlan on the Washington Post
Wonkblog reports that a manager at a franchised Days Inn in Pine Bluff, AR
threatened to sue (the newspaper and perhaps the reporter) if the paper
published an article involving him and/or a particular employee who would be
terminated after talking to the Post about the small increase in the Arkansas
minimum wage. The link is here. The
manager is reported to have made a comment about employees wanting “free money”.
It appears that she was terminated for talking to the
papers, although the facts are a bit complicated.
Michelle Singletary tweeted the story today.
There’s no question that it is difficult for people to
raise families on low-wage work. In some
cases, poor choices have contributed to the workers’ situations. Is this a legal situation, like my “conflict
of interest”? It hardly seems that she
makes enough or has enough responsibility.
Is it whistleblowing? Not
exactly.
It’s probable not something that could be rectified in
court. But hopefully, other businesses
in the area will offer hire the person, given popular outcry. (That’s better than “gofundme”.) And hopefully Wyndham Worldwide will step in
and exercise a tighter rein on the acceptable conduct of management of its
franchised properties, because stories like this are not good for its brand or
its ability to provide customer service.
Wikipedia attribution link for photo near Pine Bluff
by Keith Wahl, Creative Commons 2.0 license
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