Will the New Changes to RGIS Policies for Better or for Worst?

That is the new, and exact added message you would read whenever you power on the RM-1 machine at startup. 

RGIS LLC shall implement some drastic changes in its policies and practices particularly the way it performs inventories and the way the company deals with its employees. These policy changes  were the direct results of the settlement agreement between the company and its tens of thousands of employees after the latter filed class action lawsuits several years ago and it will be ready for its final approval on January 2011 by a magistrate judge.

I am not going to elaborate the provisions of the Official Court Notice that was sent out to RGIS hourly employees because I believe each of the class member has received it either by standard mail or by email in PDF format, or both.

Part of the settlement agreement will be, among others:

• RGIS has agreed to provide cash settlement to members of the class.
• RGIS has agreed to make changes to company policies and practices.

In other words, RGIS hourly employees shall expect the company to implement the following changes:

1. We shall expect RGIS to issue a new copy/edition of Employees' Handbook by January 2011. I think the last edition of RGIS Employees' Handbook that was disseminated in my district in particular was the 2007 Edition 3 years ago. Although RGIS may argue that it distributed the same handbook on the second quarter of this year, but there was no actual handbook being distributed. Rather, it was just a piece of paper for everyone to sign telling that you HAVE indeed received a copy. But this time, your district will give you an actual and brand new copy of Employees' Handbook where many provisions of the old policy handbook will significantly be revised.
2. We shall expect RGIS to modify RM program by adding a reminder message whenever you start up an RM-1 machine. Yes, the one from the image above is an example. Although it may not be the official reminder message until the final approval of the settlement happens and until the court will give the go signal to implement the change, the message shall be inherently the same.
3. We shall expect RGIS to disseminate information to every employee per district on these changes. Part of this dissemination information will be a part of a supervisor or manager's pre-inventory speech at inventory stores.
4. We shall expect RGIS to be more aware this time in relation to travel policies, giving timely breaks, judicious compensation, getting more accurate with employees' clocking in and clocking out. We shall also expect that inventory managers and supervisors will not hand over the Time Machine to clock in or sign-in by employees AFTER the donning of equipment but BEFORE donning the inventory equipment. Now, there could be more. But these will be some of the more visible changes that you can expect. 

Now, I am tempted to ask this question: Do you think RGIS LLC will change for good after all these settlements and injunctions happening with the company? Let's face it, these are example of negative publicities against the company's bid for Initial Public Offering (IPO). For RGIS' plan to offer shares publicly, it is paramount that a positive image plays a vital role in creating and maintaining investments and credits for the company.

Lawsuits, and injunctions do not necessarily produce negative publicity against a company's portfolio. In fact some companies use them to accelerate strategic advantage ahead of the competition. But, when they linger and remain unattended without implementing much needed damage-control initiatives in the shortest period of time, they can cause loss of confidence from the investing community. I can only hope that these policy changes, among others, shall serve for the betterment of RGIS LLC.