Keeping your employees safe

The business world contains many different industries and many different companies. No matter how similar two companies might be – there will always be differences in how they handle their day-to-day operations. One thing, however, that rarely changes is the fact that companies must adhere to federal and state regulations regarding how they conduct their business. With the globalization of integral business and corporation expansion, has come the increased focus on corporate compliance. Companies cannot do as they please; there are regulatory factors that balance ethics with rationality. For example, simply because a company can make a product cheaper by polluting the environment, does not give it the right to do so. Compliance means following the law.

The importance of EEO regulations is they are a means of supporting the employment aims and aspirations of all people regardless of gender, ethnicity, culture, disability, sexual orientation, family responsibilities, age, religion and family status (Cascio, 2003). The importance of EEO accountability among managers and supervisors in the business world continues to be emphasized by senior managers (Cascio, 2003). A high number of companies had to deal with allegations regarding EEOC complaints in the past several years, including some high profile names

In 2006, the EEOC alleged that Walgreen’s used race as a factor to place managers and pharmacists in low-performing stores and in locations in African-American communities (Schoeff, 2007). Walgreen’s quickly refuted the allegations. In April 2006, the EEOC issued guidelines for employers that warned against subtle forms of bias, such as a boss not inviting minority workers to an office lunch or a happy hour. This kind of exclusion undermines networking opportunities. It also urges companies to expand their recruiting efforts to include nontraditional sources of talent and not to rely solely on word-of-mouth referrals (Schoeff, 2007).

A sexual harassment lawsuit was filed against Denny's, Inc by an 18-year-old female former employee at a restaurant in Carbondale, Illinois (“EEOC,” 2007). The EEOC also alleged that Denny's retaliated against its former employee after she complained about unwelcome harassment by reducing her scheduled hours and terminating her employment. Denny’s fought the allegations, but was forced to pay its former employee $135,000, terminate the employment of the general manager and co-worker named in the EEOC charge of discrimination, provide sexual harassment training to all employees of its Carbondale restaurant, and provide additional training for management on the handling and investigation of sexual harassment complaints (“EEOC,” 2007).

Unfortunately, there are even more problems for companies. In 2006, at Toyota Motors, a female assistant to the highest-ranking North American executive sued the executive, Hideaki Otaka and the auto firm for over $150 million (“Citizens,” 2006). Allegedly, the CEO of Toyota Motor North America subjected his assistant to unwelcome advances less than six months after she took a position as his executive assistant (“Citizens,” 2006). At the time of the lawsuit, Toyota Motors had record sale in North America and were on the brink of overtaking General Motors Corp as the world’s largest automaker. After the fallout from this lawsuit, Otaka (the CEO) was sent to Japan to become an auditor and Jim Press, the first American president of Toyota U.S., replaced him.

Employee physical safety and wellness are other areas of concern for businesses. A top priority for any employer should be to take the time and initiative to help protect their employees (Cascio, 2003). If an employee becomes injured at work, the business may suffer (Cascio, 2003). The locomotive engineers, trainmen and maintenance of way workers are among the most affected by safety issues, with H.R. 2095 goes a long way towards addressing the unsafe conditions on the nation’s railroads. The bill seeks to amend the Hours of Service Act, and act that has been manipulated by the rail industry for years and causes rail workers to experience fatigue. Employees become fatigue by lengthy assignments, irregular scheduling and interruptions while off duty, has been the number one contributing factor of many rail accidents in recent years. Harassment b employers against rail employees who give information to government agencies about unsafe or unsecured tracks, engines, and bridges have been well-know fact in the railroad culture. The bill proposed by Reps. Oberstar and Brown gives protection for workers reporting problems.

A wellness program is a combination of activities that focus on employee health promotion and disease prevention. Businesses with wellness programs have shown substantial health-related cost savings, such as decreases in employee absences and turnover and reduced insurance premiums (Violette, 1991). Johnson & Johnson is consistently ranked as one of the best companies to work for. By offering a variety of different programs, such as stress management and interactive screening, Johnson & Johnson achieved great results. The company saved on average $8.5 million annually from 1995 to 1999 after integrating the health and wellness programs and estimated it was able to reduce medical costs for each employee of the Johnson & Johnson operating companies by about $224 each year (“Johnson,” 2005).

Other companies are not doing so well at employee safety. In 1998, OSHA inspected the scene of an accident that occurred at an automobile dealership – McKie Ford – when an employee rode a vertical conveyor that was used as a freight elevator (“Conveying Safety,” 1999). McKie Ford maintained that company personnel did not know the hazard and since it was not a recognized hazard, the citations classified as willful should be dropped permanently (“Conveying Safety,” 1999). The dealership has lost its bid to overturn the $20,000 OSHA penalty stemming from an employee's on-the-job death. A federal appeals court unanimously upheld a U.S. Labor Department finding that McKie Ford Inc. of Rapid City willfully violated its legal duty to provide a safe work place.

The law for corporations comes in many forms: federal laws, state laws, agency law, and industry standards. Breaking any of these regulations could have disastrous consequences for a company. According to Gentiva “The initial purpose of compliance was to act as a mitigating factor to reduce liability under the law. Over the years, compliance has evolved into a more integral business component with its focus on maintaining the company’s status as a good corporate citizen.” This emphasis and new standard has caused many companies to create a corporate compliance officer position where the sole duty of this individual is to maintain and monitor the company’s state of safety compliance. Some of the main concerns with corporate compliance are ethics, financial statements, equal opportunity / fair hiring practices, sexual harassment, and environmental preservation.