It may not be fun or easy to fire unsafe workers, but you can’t let them ruin your organization’s safety culture—or bottom line.
Call him “Joe.” Joe is the guy who just won’t follow the rules, either because he is too macho or too cool to wear his personal protective equipment (PPE), he doesn’t have time to follow “silly” safety procedures, or he just plain has a problem with authority.
You have talked to Joe about his unsafe behavior. You have issued him written warnings and maybe even an unpaid leave of absence. But Joe just smiles and says, “Sure”—and then keeps breaking all of your safety rules.
Recently there have been a couple of instances where Joe’s behavior almost resulted in an injury to himself or his co-workers. You know that you should fire Joe for his unsafe behavior before someone gets hurt—or worse. But, you also know that Joe is just the kind of guy who will turn around and sue you. And, even though you are in the right, the litigation could get expensive and messy.
Sound familiar?
Join us on January 14th for a 90-minute audio conference to learn how to reform—or fire—unsafe workers without fear. Find out more.
We wondered whether there was a “Joe” involved when we saw this subscriber question submitted to our sister website, Safety.BLR.com:
“We have an employee who was seriously injured while he was violating a company safety policy. He’s going to be out at least 3 months. Can we terminate him for his safety violation while he’s out on workers’ comp?”
It seems pretty unlikely that the employer would be looking to fire the injured employee if it was his or her first violation. But now the legal waters have been muddied by the addition of workers’ compensation rules. Could the employer have properly and safely terminated the employee before the accident?
(Incidentally, our legal experts’ answer to this question was that while this is a “sticky area” and one that should be discussed with the employer’s attorneys, “if the employee’s violation of safety rules would have subjected him to discipline up to and including termination, they can generally enforce the rule here. It is important not to treat this employee more harshly than other employees who engaged in similar conduct (but maybe weren’t injured).”)
Enforcement of safety procedures and practices is essential to your culture. Find out how to safely reform or fire unsafe workers. Learn more.
Any effective safety and health management program requires discipline and follow-through from both management and workers. Often, however, employers fail to follow through on reforming or terminating unsafe workers; instead, just letting them continue to flail along, putting themselves and others at risk.
While the threat of a termination-related lawsuit is undoubtedly sobering, doing nothing is far from an acceptable solution. Failing to act when an unsafe employee ignores safety practices or engages in reckless behaviors can destroy your safety culture. Morale drops, injury risk increases, and you face greater exposure to compliance-related complaints and citations.
Join us on January 14th for an in-depth audio conference and learn how to reform—or fire—unsafe workers without fear. Our speaker, a lawyer and OSHA expert, will explain:
- Why enforcement of safety procedures and practices is essential to your culture
- How to coach, reform, or ultimately terminate an employee for safety issues while keeping your legal risks at a minimum
- Strategies to avoid whistleblower or retaliation lawsuits and claims
- Who you can partner with to reduce risks of fraudulent workers’ compensation and disability bias claims from unsafe employeesEffective steps to document and track safe and unsafe performance
- Common pitfalls that will open you up to complaints, citations, and poor morale—and how to avoid them
- Why effective management of your safety program helps protect both your employees and your bottom-line profits
The speaker will be Howard Mavity, Esq. He is a partner with the Atlanta office of Fisher & Phillips, LLP, and draws upon his past business experience in transportation, logistics, and industrial supply to work with clients as a business partner. Mavity has handled well over 200 incidents of union activity and over 270 OSHA fatality cases in construction and general industry, ranging from dust explosions to building collapses. He has coordinated complex inspections involving multi-employer sites, corporate-wide compliance, and issues involving criminal referral.
Mavity coordinates the firm’s Occupational Safety and Health Practice and Catastrophe Response. He also responds to virtually every type of day-to-day workplace inquiry, and has handled cases before the EEOC, OFCCP, and numerous other state and federal agencies. He frequently speaks to business associations, bar groups, and professional groups and lectures and conducts training for numerous private and governmental employers. He has been selected as a “Georgia Super Lawyer, Labor and Employment” since 2004.
I am a Crane Technician for a Large Overhead Crane Co in Louisiana, one of our accounts is a Railroad, and we did below hook device inspections, (slings) and found over half (16) failed inspection, few if any of the employees have a clue how to use them, and since they are Union it seems no one can really tell them how serious it is to know the devices you are using are safe.