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Graduate Tuition Benefit for Some Employees but Not All
Benefits & Compensation
Graduate Tuition Benefit for Some Employees but Not All
Exchange ideas about health plans, retirement, work/life benefits, and employee assistance.
Is it legal to hand pick a few employees from one department and give them scholarships to a graduate program and not provide the same opportunity to all employees?
A handful of employees were give
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Graduate Tuition Benefit for Some Employees but Not All
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Graduate Tuition Benefit for Some Employees but Not All
posted at 4/28/2010 9:45 AM EDT
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Posts: 6
First: 11/29/2004 Last: 4/29/2010 |
Is it legal to hand pick a few employees from one department and give them scholarships to a graduate program and not provide the same opportunity to all employees?
A handful of employees were given $60,000 scholarships for graduate study but others with the same credentials and similar jobs were shut out. The scholarships were never announced to the entire staff. |
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Graduate Tuition Benefit for Some Employees but Not All
posted at 4/28/2010 10:52 AM EDT
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Posts: 464
First: 6/30/2004 Last: 11/22/2010 |
I don't have enough information to opine, however I have some hazy general conerns and thoughts:
Does the money have a federal source behind it? If protected classes were ignored in the process of determining and awarding the scholarships, there may be some cause for concern, but if it is private money and dispensed at the sole and arbitrary discretion of a decision maker you may be ok. Having public ownership or governmental sourced dollars may have an impact on how the process is handled, private ownership could have more leeway. |
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Graduate Tuition Benefit for Some Employees but Not All
posted at 4/28/2010 11:09 AM EDT
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Posts: 2146
First: 2/15/2006 Last: 9/14/2011 |
As long as they were decided on some criteria that was nondiscriminatory towards protected classes, then the employer has the right to choose.
There is nothing that requires them to post the criteria or the scholarship unless there is some type of collective bargaining agreement/union that requires it. I agree it could be more of an issue if the employer is a gov't agency or funded with public dollars. They often have different standards than the private sector. |
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Graduate Tuition Benefit for Some Employees but Not All
posted at 4/29/2010 7:25 AM EDT
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Posts: 6
First: 11/29/2004 Last: 4/29/2010 |
The employer is a private institution receiving federal research dollars.In addition, HR objected to this "arrangement," however, the decision-makers went ahead and offered the scholarships anyway.
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Graduate Tuition Benefit for Some Employees but Not All
posted at 4/29/2010 1:26 PM EDT
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Posts: 544
First: 9/27/2004 Last: 9/13/2011 |
I don't know about the legitimacy, but even if it is legal, it still causes employees to question the company's fairness and that's not a good thing.
It sounds like the decision makers want to invest in key employees, but if the process isn't fair, these key individuals will have to deal with resentment and negativity from colleagues. |
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