Chapter 18Chapter 18Employee Employee

Stakeholders: Stakeholders: Privacy, Safety, Privacy, Safety,

and Healthand Health

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Right to Privacy, Safety, Health

• Right to privacy

• The status of workers’ rights is ill-defined.

• Right to safety

• Thousands injured on the job annually.

• Right to health

• Thousands suffer from work-related health problems.

In today’s uncertain work environment, employees are more hesitant to ask for their rights to be respected.

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Right to Privacy

Right to: •Keep personal affairs to oneself

•Autonomy

•Determine when, how, and to what extent private information is communicated to others.

Privacy in the workplace is in flux as new technological options are introduced.

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Workplace Privacy Issues

1. Collection and use of employee information in personnel files.

2. Integrity testing.

3. Drug testing.

4. Monitoring employee’s work, behavior, conversations, and location by electronic means.

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Integrity Tests

Polygraph•Lie Detector

•Highly controversial in business

Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA)•Banned most private-sector use of the lie detector

Integrity tests•Also controversial, but viewed as a substitute for polygraph tests

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Employee Polygraph Protection Act

Exceptions Include: Security services

Nuclear facilities

Radioactive or toxic waste

Public water supply facilities

Public transportation

Precious commodities

Proprietary information

Controlled substances

Government employees6

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Arguments For Drug Testing

High cost of drug abuse• Increased rate of accidents and injuries

• Increased rate of theft

• Increased propensity to make poor decisions

• Ruined lives

Ethical responsibility to employees and public to provide Safe workplaces

Secure asset protection

Safe places to transact business7

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Arguments Against Drug Testing

• Violates due process rights

• Invades privacy rights

• False positives from common foods and medicines

• Ignores employee’s actual performance

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Employee Assistance Programs

Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs)•Extend into a variety of employee problem areas.

A proactive way of dealing with employee problems

1.Employees are valuable members of the organization.

2.It is better to help troubled employees than to discipline or discharge them.

3.Recovered employees are better employees.9

© 2012 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning

Monitoring Employees on the Job

Employee monitoring occurs at the majority of mid- to large-sized firms.

Technology changed the pervasiveness and nature of monitoring.

Videotaping

Recording phone calls and voice mail

Reading computer files

Monitoring emails and web access

GPS10

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Right-to-Know Laws

OSHA’s hazard communication standards1.Update inventories of hazardous chemicals in the workplace.

2.Assemble material safety data sheets.

3.Ensure that hazardous chemicals are properly labeled.

4.Train workers on the use of hazardous chemicals.

5.Prepare and maintain a written description of the hazard communication program.

6.Consider any problems with trade secrets from the disclosure requirements.

7.Review state requirements for hazard disclosure.

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Workplace Violence

• A major problem posing challenges to management.

• Companies make few efforts to address workplace violence.

Continued violence in the future because of: Greater tolerance for violence

Easily available weapons

Economic stress

Difficult job market

Insufficient support systems12

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Who is Affected?

Workers are most at risk who:

•exchange money with the public.

•deliver passengers, goods, or services.

•work alone or in small groups.

•work late at night or early morning.

•work in community settings with extensive public contact.

•work in high-crime areas.

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OSHA’s Recommendations for Preventing Workplace Violence

1. Provide safety education.

2. Secure the workplace.

3. Provide drop safes.

4. Equip field staff with cell phones and alarms.

5. Instruct employees not to enter unsafe locations.

6. Develop policies and procedures covering visits for home health-care providers.

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Right to Health in the Workplace

Smoking in the workplace•Growing anti-smoking sentiment in the U.S. and globally• Passive smoke kills thousands in the U.S.

each year

•Benefits of smoke-free workplaces: Lower employee healthcare costs. Smoke-free workplaces help smokers to

quite.

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Family-Friendly Workplace

Work/Life balance•A state of equilibrium where the demands of a person’s personal and professional life are equal.•A desirable state for most workers, but difficult in recessionary economic times.

Family-friendly benefits1.Dependent care flexible spending accounts2.Flextime3.Family leave above time required Family and Medical leave Act4.Domestic partner benefits5.Adoption assistance

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Family and Medical Leave Act

Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

•Designed to make life easier for employees with family or health problems.

FMLA employee rights12 weeks of unpaid leave in 12-month period

Reinstatement in old or equivalent jobs

Health benefits during leave periods

Protection from retaliation

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Family-Friendly Workplace (continued)

FMLA employer rightsCompanies with fewer than 50 workers are exempt.

Right to demand that employees obtain medical opinions or certifications; may require additional opinions.

Do not have to pay employees, but must continue health benefits.

If employee and spouse are at the same firm, the total leave for both may be limited to 12 weeks.

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