Time Study Report

By Tom Bishanell

In the first 8 months of 2002, piecework settlements have accelerated at Briggs & Stratton Corporation. Union membership voted to temporarily add a time study consultant in October of last year to assist in getting more grievances settled. As of the end of August, the Company and Union have come to an agreement on 103 piecework timestudy grievances this year.

When I became Compensation Analyst in May of 2000 the Union had 132 unsettled rate grievances with Briggs. Since that time the Union has settled 196 of these and still 90 remain. Looking at the numbers, it’s perplexing that we keep getting such a large influx of fresh piecework grievances in a system being phased out in August of 2004. Two of the harder hit areas, Dept. M8F Flywheel Machining and Dept. 794 Stator Assembly, have just recently seen more movement on rate settlements. I’m hoping this trend will continue.

The Daywork upgrade situation at Briggs & Stratton leaves a lot more to be desired. At present, we have 30 daywork grievances on our books with half of those seeking upgrades. The merit increases were in our comparative ranking system for a very good reason. There has to be a method to reward workers within their respective labor grades. There are always going to be exceptional individuals in every job classification. By taking away the merit increases you cut the functionality out of comparative ranking.

I’ve often heard that the merit system was a failure and greatly abused with favoritism. It’s always been left up to Company discretion.

In Die Cast, there are numerous daywork grievances on labor intensive Machine Tender jobs. On one such job, the Water Inlet Housing or "Beavertail", it was determined by the Company that the amount of work required according to the work instructions couldn’t be successfully completed. Some elements of work clearly needed to be removed from this job. Prior to this, Union members were written up for failure to follow those work instructions and allowing non-conforming pieces to end up in their finished loads. The Company has since added even more work to this job and refuses to rescind these write-ups.