I wouldn't really say they have authority over the other etls. However, they do have the power that comes along with being an advocate for tms( this is how it should be when a hr does their job...doesn't happen that often). If enough tms are going to the hr and complaining about a certain etl...then the hr/etl should go to the stl and the stl can take it from there. However, more times than not if you go to the hr/etl to complain about another etl they will not only tell the etl what was said but who said it...or give them enough info they can figure it out . So, for that reason a lot of tms dont go to the hr about etl/stl related issues.