A bump is a reassignment of jobs on the basis of
seniority
Seniority is the state of being older or placed in a higher position of status relative to another individual, group, or organization. For example, one employee may be senior to another either by role or rank (such as a CEO vice a manager), or by ...
in
unionised organisations in the private or public sector.
For example, if a job becomes vacant, more than one
person
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...
may be reassigned to different tasks or ranks on the basis of who has worked for the organisation longer. As the next person assumes the duties of the person who has vacated, now the job of the replacement person likewise becomes vacant and must thus be filled by the next person with the appropriate seniority level. An exception to this may be unionised organisations that occasionally employ summer
student
A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution.
In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school or higher (e.g., college or university); those in primary or elementa ...
s, whereby the students do not officially accumulate any seniority and cannot thus ''"bump"'' another person.
See also
*
Closed shop
A pre-entry closed shop (or simply closed shop) is a form of union security agreement under which the employer agrees to hire union members only, and employees must remain members of the union at all times to remain employed. This is different fr ...
External links
Example of "Bumping" in a New York School District
{{Organized labor, sp=uk
Trade unions
Criticism of trade unions