Was employee concerned about safety or being disruptive?
February 7, 2011 by Fred HosierPosted in: construction safety, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, OSHA news, What Would You Do?, Workers' attitudes about safety
PDF An employee brings a safety concern to his manager. The manager thinks the worker is being disruptive. What happens next?
In a case involving a power plant in Texas, the employee was fired.
That led to a whistleblower complaint to OSHA. After an investigation, OSHA found the employee was terminated illegally.
Now, OSHA has reached a settlement with Baton Rouge, LA-based MMR Contractors and Greenville, SC-based Fluor Corp.
The unnamed worker, an instrument fitter, complained several times to his employer, MMR, and also to Fluor Corp. the general contractor at the worksite, about an unsafe crane lift that exposed workers to serious injuries from being crushed or struck by an overhead load.
Fluor insisted MMR remove the worker from the worksite, and MMR fired him.
Both companies said the employee was let go for disruptive behavior.
However, OSHA said the employee’s behavior was excused under the “leeway doctrine” of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
The doctrine states that employers have to give workers some leeway when they report potential safety problems. Employers should expect employees might be riled up when bringing a safety problem to a supervisor’s attention
As part of the settlement, MMR and Fluor have agreed to:
- pay the employee $17,500 in back wages
- purge any reference to his termination from his personnel file
- provide neutral employment references, and
- agree not to retaliate against any employee for engaging in activities protected by the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
Have you ever encountered an employee who was really worked up over a potential safety problem? How did you handle the situation? Let us know in the Comments Box below.
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Tags: employee safety concern, leeway doctrine, whistleblower
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February 8th, 2011 at 7:56 am
Had a wastewater treatment facility operator concerned over lots of details of lots of tasks. As the senior staff member on site, I continuously tell staff not to perform any task if they feel unsafe. I always address their concerns, supply the latest PPE, and revise procedures according to our process. Then and only then do I look to see if there is a performance issue. Each issue is handled on a case by case basis. This particular employee was placed on the JSA development committee.
February 8th, 2011 at 11:07 am
We have one employee who has a new complaint almost every day. Each time I take the time to exam the complaint and make any adjustments to procedures or repairs if they were needed. The one time I found he was incorrect about a subject and informed him of that he called in OSHA. OSHA confirmed we were right, however they found some other small items that required attention of course. At the next safety meeting (he is a member of the committee) he brought it up again and I informed him that each and every one of his complaints and notification were examined and handled so that it was on the record. We have not had any problems with him since. Some people just do not want to be told they are wrong.
February 10th, 2011 at 9:46 am
I wish we had employees that got excited over safety issues. Most don’t care. It’s a long-embedded cultural thing. Hard to change it.
February 11th, 2011 at 1:40 pm
We had an employee who spent 10+ years on the job, never complained, showed up to work every day, and did a solid job. Then one day he starts complaining about the safety of a process he had been doing for the duration of his employment (involving chemicals). We looked into it and found his complaint to be unjustified. We explained our conclusion with him and he thanked us for looking into it. The next thing I know his wife is calling us, screaming at me for landing him in the hospital with terrible chemical burns in his lungs! We turn it over to the insurance company to handle the work comp case and it comes out that he doesn’t have any chemical burns to his lungs (nor could they find anything else wrong with him), so the whole thing gets dropped. Again, the employee seems fine with the outcome and comes back to work, happy to do his job. Shortly after he walks off the job and OSHA is knocking on the door to inspect his job. His wife (she kept calling to tell us how terrible of an employer we were) later informed me that she had called OSHA because we had injured him so terribly. OSHA, of course, confirmed our earlier findings that his complaints were unfounded. As in The Glenn’s situation above, I’m guessing, OSHA justified their existence and dinged us with a minimal documentation issue for their trouble. It was obvious throughout that his wife was looking for a payday (and didn’t understand the law and/or process) and using her husband to try to accomplish it. In the end, the employee called us and told us he was retiring.