The Air Tools Case
Use of this case in an HRM examination paper
The company over the last 2 years had issued hundreds of air-tools to its engineers yet the fitters still came back for more issues. The company finally called a halt. The approach management declared that it was taking was agreed with the union.
In the first instance there would be an amnesty. Staff would be asked (with a promotion campaign) to hand in superfluous air-guns. It was known that some fitters had fifteen or twenty stored away in their locker - whilst others had five. Having five was typical - because of the need for flexibility of working. Matters came to a head. There had been very little response with the amnesty. The training department was desperately in need of air-tools for trainees and had made a further appeal through line-management who were very sensitised to matters. Then two incidents occurred in one day.
- a fitter was identified taking an air-tool off site. On being challenged he stated that he was only borrowing it for some home workshop repairs. His supervisor had full knowledge of it. When this was reported back to the manager - on approaching the supervisor, the latter denied all knowledge of the matter.
- on a late afternoon shift, two supervisors had to intervene in an scuffle, a dust-up between an experienced fitter and a trainee. The trainee had been using an air-gun, put it to one side for a few minutes, found it gone and saw the fitter "placing it" in his locker. A row and shoving match had ensued with lots of heated language. The men had squared up to each other in front of the supervisor who had had to prise them apart.
The supervisor suspended both men requiring them to leave the workplace and return the next day when a full inquiry would be held.
The fitter had argued that he had merely borrowed it for a moment. He just had it in his hand when he turned to collect something from his locker. Only three were found in his locker but his supervisor suspects that he is one of the air-tool collectors - certainly he is someone who in conversations treats the amnesty as some kind of game.
BOLA Cases
These case studies © were written for examination purposes by Chris Jarvis
URL: http://www.brunel.ac.uk/~bustcfj/bola/cases/airtools.html