Bad Decisions in the Workplace: Catastrophe & Compliance



Table of Contents

Major Laws1

Safety Policies2

Performance Actions3

Recordkeeping and Reporting3

References5

Bad Decisions in the Workplace: Catastrophe & Compliance

Major Laws

Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act), covers all the employees and their employers in the 50 states. Federal occupational safety and health administration directly provides the coverage and sometimes the OSHA approved Job Safety and Health Plan covers it. The situation in this case is clearly covered in the OSHA. The employer has more than 1,000 employees, and it is a warehouse. The employee was injured previously and came back after an accident outside workplace. Now the condition is that, employee has returned but having trouble climbing up the ladder. A request to relocate the job was disapproved by the manager. Later the employee dies as a result of falling from a ladder on work. The other law applicable to the situation is the Tort of negligence. This law covers the harm caused by carelessness and not intentional harm (Simon, Johnston, & Markesinis, 2003). In this case, it might be proved that, due diligence and prudent person would have avoided placing a man with sore leg with no expertise to cover the weakness, on a job that involves climbing ladder so high. Therefore OSHA and Tort of Negligence are the two basic laws applicable in this scenario. One thing in this case is noticeable that, employee should have taken leave further or should have left the job if he was not fit for it. The responsibility of self-care falls on the Joe as well. Also, it will be noticed if the employer had any safety requirements like helmet or so, and Joe has followed it or not. Since the employee has hit his head and wearing helmet might have made the difference.

Safety Policies

Safety policies are meaningful tools taken to avoid possible emergencies. These safety policies can be taken as a result of legal requirement, or on the basis of corporate objectives. The OSHA requires the employers to provide personal protective equipment, specifically for each industry, when heights are involved in the work, then helmet is usually a must protective equipment to be provided by the employer and proper regulation must ensure that employees follow these practices. Signs should be placed in these places to remind the workers to use the protective equipment's and supervisors should monitor the activities of the workers. Other policies include the ...