Can a surplus be declared when there is still work needed?

[smmanuel18]

I reside in Northern California and work in a call center for company that will remain anonymous. The company I currently work for has called for our office to be closed due to the decline in call volume. They are calling it a "Surplus Declaration" - A formal surplus must be declared in your work group by job title, consolidated headquarters and Presidential entity.

Surplus usually means that there are too many employees and not enough work, yet we are constantly being offered overtime to handle the workload. We are busy everyday and as I said, they have consistently offered overtime in our department everyday for the past several months. There was no real reason the company could offer as to why they chose to close our center out of the three in California. One office in Southern California was never a call center, they just converted the office of 70 employees to a call center to save their jobs and yet they are closing an office of 188 employees in No. California instead to relocate them to either of the two Southern California offices or the one in Texas.

I just want to know, legally, is there anything that can be done? There is a strong, unfair and unethical practice going on in our company and we feel helpless. If it's a surplus, shouldn't the surplus be declared throughout the entire job title and not just an office since they claim there is no work? We are an enterprise entity and it should be fair across the board if there is a decline in our line of work. On top of that, the decision to close our No. California was made by a 3rd level manager, who resides in So. California, and had the choice to close one of the three California offices.

 

[cbg]

Unless you have a bona fide, legally binding contract that specifies that they cannot declare a surplus under these circumstances, they are entitled to close whatever office they see fit under whatever circumstances they see fit to close it.

 

[smmanuel18]

I can understand and respect that. I will have to have our union further investigate our contract. But what about their basis of decision? They gave no formal reason as to why they decided to close our center. There was no justification given and when asked the reason for the decision, the company could not offer one. Their reason simply stated that there was no need for our line of work, yet they convert an office of 70 to a call center, taking away our line of work and still offering to relocate employees to continue to work. Where is the ethics in that?

 

[cbg]

Impossible to say without knowing far, far more about the situation that we do. Maybe it costs less to run a center in another area. Maybe they lost the lease on their current building. Maybe the rent went up. Maybe they were able to get a better deal somewhere else.Maybe they're about to be bought by another company who already has a facility in place. Could be any of a thousand reasons, any of them legal, any of them ethical, why they would want to close one center and open another in a different area.

They are not required to tell you what their reasoning is and depending on what the reason is (the last suggestion I offered is a good example if they're in due diligence) they may be legally prohibited from telling you.

 

[smmanuel18]

Thank you again for responding Super Moderator.

At this point, now that they've announced the closure of our office, I'm beyond their reasons why. Fact of the matter is, I have to accept the office closure. Upon reading our Union Contract, I read something really interesting.

They have two sections in our contract that covers "Force Balance" and Force Movement." The force movement is the resolution to the Force Balance if the force balance does not resolve a decision of a surplus. Our company has decided to declare a surplus in our office prior to them trying to avoid it by way of the force balance. When I read the contract it's like they're working everything backwards - offering separation benefits (which is an option under Movement only AFTER they declare surplus), declaring surplus, then offering relocation and so forth. How can I argue this legally?

 

[cbg]

No one here can tell you since we have not read the contract in question. You will need to show it to an attorney in your state.