Category: Case Study

Good Grocers, Inc.

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Assignment 1 Case study: Good Grocers, Inc.
Due Week 6 and worth 150 points
Note: The company mentioned herein is merely a hypothetical organization with characteristics developed to enable students to respond to the assignment. You may create and / or make all necessary assumptions needed for the completion of this assignment.

After Good Grocers, Inc. expanded its organic produce section and adopted a “buy local” policy, sales increased. The Virginia-based chain expanded its retail locations from seven to twelve (7 to 12) over the last three (3) years.

As the Assistant Human Resources Manager, your job is to advise store managers about legal and personnel matters. The leadership at Good Grocers, Inc. considers you to be a legally astute manager, who consults with the corporation’s attorney, as necessary. The corporation’s leadership has tasked you with managing two (2) situations have come across your desk. Please respond with support that is backed by the law.

Write a three to four (3-4) page paper which addresses the two (2) situations from two (2) store managers.

Situation 1
Last week, my produce manager reported the following incident:
As I came out from the bakery, I saw a woman lying on the floor of the produce department. Her husband started yelling at me, saying, “She slipped on a banana peel and fell. My wife is the anchorwoman for NEWSNOW, and we are going to sue you!”
She didn’t look hurt, but I called 911 and filed an incident report that contained the facts of the situation. When viewing the area, I did, in fact, see a banana peel on the floor, but it was still yellow and lying on top of a ribbed rubber mat. The woman in question was wearing five-inch high heels. But I wasn’t sure what to say, other than the woman would be hearing from us.
1. Explain whether this situation is best handled by litigation or by a particular form of alternative dispute resolution.
2. Based on how you would handle this situation, either through litigation or a particular form of alternative dispute resolution, outline the key next steps involved in seeking a resolution. Justify your response.

Situation 2
Last week, my bakery manager was short an employee over Mother’s Day weekend when the bakery is always busy. To make up for being shorthanded, the bakery manager called in Ms. Greene, an independent contractor. Generally, Ms. Greene comes in on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights between 6 to 9 p.m. just to decorate cakes; she has her own bakery business. We furnish all of her equipment, and we pay her by the cake.
Ms. Greene worked eight (8) hours on Saturday and another eight (8) hours on Sunday over Mother’s Day weekend. We paid her $15.00 per hour. On the following Monday when Ms. Greene came in, she told me that she wanted to receive the same benefits as the other Good Grocers part-time employees, such as paid time off and employee discounts. Ms. Greene asserted that she really is a part-time employee who deserves the usual employee benefits.
3. Determine whether Ms. Greene is an independent contractor or a part-time employee. Provide a rationale for your response.
4. Explain the reasoning supporting whether or not Ms. Greene should receive the same benefits as part-time employees.

Suggested resources for this assignment:
1. Access your Learning Resource Center (LRC) at the top of your iCampus screen. Search by keyword for business articles on arbitration, mediation, or independent contractors. You may also use your LRC to access legal topics and articles through the Lexis Nexis database.
2. At FindLaw, located at http://www.findlaw.com/, you may search by legal topic or enter a keyword(s) into a search box to find relevant information and articles.
3. You may use the following additional resources:

o Internal Revenue Service (IRS): http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Independent-Contractor-Self-Employed-or-Employee

o The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry: http://www.doli.virginia.gov/laborlaw/laborlaw.html
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Use at least two (2) quality academic resources in this assignment, such as a government Website, and include internal citations. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.
• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:
• Describe the legal environment of business, the sources of American law, and the basis of authority for government to regulate business.
• Explain basic court procedures, types of courts, and alternative dispute resolution methods.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in business law.
• Write clearly and concisely about business law using proper writing mechanics.

SAMPLE ANSWER

Introduction

There are several methods in which legal responsibility in tort may arise;

Legal responsibility may be forced as a legal consequence of a person’s deed, or of his omission if he is under a lawful obligation to act. Legal responsibility may also be forced upon one person as a legal consequence of the action or inadvertence of another individual with whom he stands in any distinct association, such as that of a servant and his master (vicarious liability).

In selected cases, legal responsibility is founded upon a mistake, sometimes intention to cause harm, is required but more often laxity or negligence is sufficient. In circumstances of strict liability, however legal responsibility is in capricious degrees independent of the liability.

Most torts necessitate damage or loss resulting to the plaintiff as a consequence of the perpetrator’s demeanor. However, in some circumstances as trespass to land and to persons, the burden of proof of actual damage is not essential.

Intention or negligence or the breach of statutory

Intention

Some wrongdoing requires intention on the part of the wrongdoer. Intention can be inferred from the conduct of the wrongdoer. Whatever a man thinks must be deduced from what he says and does. A person intents a consequence if it is his/her motives to bring it about.

Negligence

‘Negligence’ may signify full advertence to one’s conduct and its consequences. More usually, however, it means inadvertence by the defendant, but the defendant cannot escape liability because he adverted to the risk if the case is one where even inadvertence would saddle him with liability. An illustration of full advertence is the case of Vaughan – v – (Menlove 1937) 3 Bing N.C. 468

(This case was followed in Ward v Jesco Stores, (1976). AllE.R.219, where the Court of Appeal held that an accident which occurred due to spillage of yoghurt on a shop floor, put an evidential burden on the defendant store owner to prove that the accident did not take place through any lapse of care on their part. They were not able to satisfy that burden, and the plaintiff succeeded.)

The appropriate procedure to resolve the conflict.

Considering the circumstances of the case the company is facing I believe the best option for resolving the issue is through negotiation. In my opinion since we actually have no clear evidence of what really transpired in that juncture. It is the woman’s word against our production manager’s word. On solving conflicts the method to apply in resolving, the dispute usually will depend upon the nature of your particular argument and personal needs of the participants. In our case, we have to put consideration on the following issues as that is necessary (Goldberg, Frank & Rogers, 1992).

Firstly, we have to figure it out whether the case should be a Private and confidential or in a public court setting. Secondly, we should consider the Informal settings, which are considerably flexible processes or those that are formal and have specific rules to follow. Thirdly is whether we have Personal control or decision made by a judge or arbitrator. Fourthly is the Time factor. Fifthly, the Cost considerations.

The sixth, is whether we desire to uphold the mutual affiliations, bearing in mind the people involved in the discontent circumstances are our customers. Seventh, is whether the Disagreement ought to be judged on questions or matter of law. In that, be it resolved with business law principles or an alternate way out brought into being by other mechanisms that are fair, yet practical. Lastly, if the decision to be made finally will be binding, and readily enforceable Negotiation is a straight forward way of solving discontentments. It is a two-way communication channel among conflicting individuals in the disagreement bearing an objective of finding a solution (Goldberg, Frank & Rogers, 1992).

Negotiation with the client may be done directly, or we can use the company’s lawyer to handle negotiations directly with the client and her husband on the business’s behalf. Usually, there are no precise procedures to follow, but negotiation is fritful when all persons concerned come to a concesus to stay calm and talk one person at a time. In this circumstance, it is better to negotiate in the board room company or the office (Goldberg, Frank & Rogers, 1992).

The goodness of negotiation is that it permits us to take part directly in decisions that affect us. In successful negotiations, the needs of both parties usually taken into consideration. A favorable negotiated agreement can be used as a contract and is enforceable in the law.

Negotiation is the principal methods of choice for problem-solving and trying to influence an equally satisfactory settlement (Goldberg, Frank & Rogers, 1992). If no pact is reached, litigation may suffice. The negotiation process is versatile and may be employed at any point in tying to resolve the conflict. E.g In advance of a court case being filed, even when the court process is on going, or at the end of that trial, even at the point before or after filling an appeal (Goldberg, Frank & Rogers, 1992).

Characteristics of Negotiation:

• Negotiations are usually Voluntary
• They tend to be Confidential and Private
• Negotiations are relatively inexpensive and may be Quick as compared to litigation.
• Negotiations are mostly Informal and thus unstructured to a fault.

 

• High chances of resulting in a win-win solution

Key steps involved in seeking a resolution. Justify your response.

The initial step, which is paramount to the resolution of the problem, is to find out whether one has the Command or capacity to talk and influence an agreement. In this step, one party must reach out to the other to find out if one is willing to settle. Also, it is prudent to know the Credibility of other parties concerned and the Ability to negotiate on equal terms. Also, it is at this step to point out the underlying alternatives to negotiation if negotiation fails (Thibaut & Walker, 1978).

The next step is to Contact the other person involved to confirm about the Programme, Place (Neutral), and Contributing parties to the conflict resolution process (Thibaut & Walker, 1978).

The third step in the negotiation is the Ground work of a plan and interest valuation. Here one should Study the issues, resolve opposing interests inside the group, Evaluate the Best Alternate to a Negotiated Agreement and Fashion choices for common gain “win-win” (Thibaut & Walker, 1978).

Determine whether Ms Green is an independent contractor or a part-time employee

In my opinion, Ms Green does not qualify to be a part-time employee, according to equity law principles that define independent service provider position by structure of payment. If an individual is on a company’s payroll and collects stable salaries, evidently, he or she is a member of staff rather than an independent service provider, who probably receives compensation a total varying custom. In this case scenario, the Ms Green has been receiving payment on a commission, based on the number of cakes she produces (Miller, 1991)

The general principal rule is that a person is a independent service provider if his employer administer the result of the labour only. He is not involved in the ways and means in which the end result was achieved. In this case, the company has not been directly involved (Miller, 1991). Even though it furnished all the equipment’s she used in decorating the cakes the company did not control her schedule of work and how she produced the cakes.

Independent contractors are appointed to undertake a particular job. The affiliation between the hiring party and the independent contractor is predetermined (Wright, 1991). Ms Green was contracted on a contractual basis that stipulated explicitly on what she was supposed to do. There is verbal, written, or implied contract amid the parties about what will be completed and how much that service is worth (Sumutka, 1992).

The nature of the work will assist in describing the affiliation. When work is well thought-out central to the line of work, it is more likely that the worker is permanent employee. Otherwise, work, which is temporary and non-integral may point toward independent contractor standing. Ms Green work seems not to be integral as it only required her to perform it on particular days(Sumutka, 1992).

In an effort to construe the doctrine of the Fair Labour Standards Act and differentiate amid worker and an independent service provider status, several courts and federal government agencies did construct an “economic realities test.” It examines the dependence of the employee on the employement. If an individual gets a relative higher percentage of his remuneration from that business, likelihoods is that the person is an employee. The assessment factors in such things as cader of expertise, the essential structure of the work, the motive and interest the parties have and payment of benefits and government taxes (Oden, 1991).

Also used is the “right to administor” the assessment. When the “would be” employer regulates how work is carried out and a how the merchandise is distributed, then the relationship is of a servant-master relationship. If the would be employer relinquishes his duty and right over how the employees completes their work, and merely issue demands, then that association of is that of the master and independent contractor(Oden, 1991).

The reason supporting whether or not Ms Greene should receive the same benefits as part-time employees

Ms Green should not be issued the same kind of benefits as part-time employees because she was paid in full because the nature of the job was a one-time thing and not a permanent situation that would warrant such demands. Besides, she was paid in its entirety an actual figure that was more that her normal commission when she did her daily chores. For one to be considered a part-time, employee there is a stipulated period that should lapse, and the consistency of work should be flawless (Wright, 1991).

References

Goldberg, S.G., Frank, E. A and Rogers N.H.(1992). Dispute Resolution: Negotiation,      Mediation, and Other Processes, (2nd Ed.) (Boston: Little, Brown and Company.

http://www.irs.gov/govt/fslg/article/0,,id=110344,00.html

Miller, M. (1991). The IRS Finds Invisible Employees. Personnel Journal, pp. 56-60.

Oden, D.H. (1991). Independent Contractor: A Legitimate Classification with Reclassification Protection. In Taxes, pp. 319-325.

Sumutka, A. R. (1992). Employee or Independent Contractor? The CPA Journal. pp. 48-55.

Thibaut, J., & Walker, L. (1978). A theory of procedure. California law review, 541-566.

Wright, K.K. (1991). Determining Employee Status. Columbia, Mo.: MU.

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