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Ethical Obligations
The HR leader for the National Football League Players Association has filed a lawsuit claiming she was wrongfully removed from her job because she assisted in an investigation into alleged collusion between the players' union and league officials. The suit underscores the fine line between the HR executive's responsibility to the organization and a duty to uphold professional ethics, experts say.
On the heels of a lawsuit filed by its director of human resources, the National Football League Players Association finds itself accused of huddling up with NFL officials in secret meetings to discuss labor talks. In the complaint, NFLPA Director of Human Resources Mary Moran alleges she was wrongfully removed from her job and placed on administrative leave in early August due to her role in the investigation, according to a Sept. 1 article that appeared on the Web sites of Sports Business Daily and Sports Illustrated. Just days after the suit was filed in District of Columbia Superior Court on Aug. 27, the NFLPA confirmed it is the target of a Department of Labor probe into whether its union leaders tried to collude with league officials by holding clandestine meetings regarding union matters. Moran claims that she provided investigators evidence that former NFLPA President Troy Vincent and other members of the union had met with league commissioner Roger Goodell and Houston Texans owner Bob McNair, allegedly to provide the league access to "critical" union information before negotiations began for a new collective-bargaining agreement. Moran asserts that NFLPA executive committee member Mark Bruener and Texans players' representative Kris Brown attended the meetings as well, which she claims were a bid by union members to gain influence with the NFL while providing "owners a toehold in the NFLPA," according to thepublished reports. Seeking more than $4 million in damages, Moran contends that she was harassed by union officials and that her professional reputation has been sullied in retaliation for her cooperation with the investigation. In a statement, NFLPA official George Atallah said the union is cooperating with the Department of Labor investigation, and that the organization is "confident that the claims are without merit and therefore [sees] no reason to comment on the specifics of the lawsuit." Whether Moran's claims are found to be legitimate remains to be seen. But the case serves as an example of the precarious spot HR executives can sometimes find themselves in; caught between the organization and the law. In such situations, the HR professional's primary duty is to the law, says Mark Spring, partner in the Sacramento, Calif., office of Carlton, DiSante & Freudenberger. "As an HR executive, there are situations where you can be asked to do something that appears to be a violation of the law. In such a situation, the HR executive must do what is necessary to comply with the law," Spring says. "This is the primary responsibility, particularly since an HR executive's actions in violating the law or permitting others in the organization to do so will likely be imputed to the employer." Human resource executives -- like other employees -- ultimately reports to management and certainly have a responsibility to protect the interests of the organization. But, moreover, HR executives have an ethical obligation to their profession, says Richard A. Meier, a Farmington Hills, Mich.-based employment attorney. In a wrongful-termination case, an HR professional's actions taken in an attempt to fulfill that greater duty may hold sway with a jury, he says. "Under the law, a well-founded belief that an HR professional is upholding an HR professional ethic will carry much weight in any discharge litigation," Meier says. That said, Moran may have a host of factors working against her when and if her case reaches the courtroom, says Spring. "It is very difficult for a current employee to sue their employer and prevail," he says. "My understanding is that [Moran] is still employed by the NFLPA. If this case gets to trial anytime in the next year, there are going to be a number of laid-off and unemployed folks on the jury. They are likely to have little sympathy for a person suing who still has a job making over $200,000 per year. In addition, he says, "many people hold professional athletes in very high esteem. The same factors that many believe influenced the jury in the O.J. Simpson criminal trial -- his athletic prowess and race -- could similarly influence this lawsuit." Family ties could be another sticking point, Spring points out. Moran's father, Rep, Jim Moran, D-Va., had been accused of trying to influence the NFL player's union not to hire Vincent after the death of former NFLPA head Gene Upshaw, out of fear that Vincent would fire his daughter while ridding the organization of remnants from the previous administration. "If the jury believes that Moran got her father involved or tried to get her father to use his influence, the jury will likely lose respect for Ms. Moran, and her lawsuit will be very difficult to prove," Spring says. A potentially unsympathetic jury aside, a difficult-to-prove allegation may be the biggest obstacle for Moran to overcome, he says. "The meat and potatoes of Moran's lawsuit are the actual discussions that took place at meetings where she was not present, and upon which there are no notes or recordings of. This, in and of itself, will make it difficult for Moran to prevail," he says. The lessons this particular suit may have to teach HR professionals are difficult to glean at this stage, says Spring. The case's fate may ultimately hinge on what the Department of Labor uncovers in its investigation, and it stands to reason that Moran's case would be vastly improved if the DOL finds collusion between the union and the league. "In either case, I would not be surprised to see the NFLPA settle the lawsuit and pay [Moran] money if she would agree to resign her employment and drop her lawsuit and waive all claims," Spring says. "It must be very difficult for the NFLPA to try to function efficiently when their highest-level HR professional is in the middle of a public lawsuit with [the organization]." Regardless of what the NFLPA investigation reveals, or how the Moran case unfolds, HR executives should ultimately look at this scenario as a reminder that upholding their profession's ethical standards should always trump their loyalty to the organization, Meier concludes. "HR professionals realize that ethics are what provide them their professional status," he says. "One thing that most professionals do when a lawsuit of this magnitude arises is to go back and re-examine their code of ethics and analyze the situation. Most professionals realize that somewhere in [that] code the answer as to how the professional should act is articulated."
September 15, 2009 Copyright 2009© LRP Publications |
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