Can I Be Disciplined For Having An Accident At Work? This is a question that is begging for answers in the mouth of many employees; we are going break this question down and give you the answer in you need in this article.
When an employee is hurt, employers sometimes want to discipline them. After all, an employee’s carelessness or bad behavior might cause an accident. Workplace injury laws may prohibit discipline which raises questions for employers.
Can I Be Disciplined For Having An Accident At Work
The answer is – It all of it depends.
Analyze your employment or labor contracts and their company’s policies regarding discipline.
Just because discipline is allowed by law does not mean that it is simple to deal with. An employer may need to take into account a number of legal factors.
Your employer cannot retaliate against you if you file an OSHA claim.
In accordance with OSHA safety standards, it is the responsibility of an employer to provide a safe workplace. Injuries must be documented and employees must be informed of potential dangers. Employers cannot take retaliatory action against employees who report unsafe working conditions and injuries to OSHA.
This could incorporate terminating or in any event, training a representative. The employee may file a complaint with OSHA if the employer does retaliate.
Safety in the workplace is an important part of business. A workplace safety program is critical because of the demanding physical requirements of most industries. There are numerous laws that govern safety, but the Occupational Safety and Health Act (the OSH Act) is one of the most significant. Please be aware that not all employers are subject to the OSH Act. It is applicable to the most private employers, but not to government employers.
The OSH Act does a ton of things. It allows workers to complain to OSHA, the federal agency that enforces the OSH Act, about unsafe working conditions. As a result, it says that employers cannot fire or discipline employees for exercising their rights under the OSH Act. The OSH Act gives employees the right to report workplace injuries, testify against an employer about an unsafe workplace, and file a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Last but not least, employers are prohibited from discriminating against employees for exercising their OSH Act rights.
Basically, OSHA appears to perceive the need of managers to have and implement authentic work environment security strategies to shield its laborers from landing harmed on the position. However, the rights of employees to report injuries to their employer must be balanced with discipline for breaking those rules.
Any type of discipline for disregarding a safety rule that follows a worker revealing a physical injury could be seen as discrimination or retaliation under the OSH Act. Here are some things employers think about before disciplining an employee who broke a safety rule after an accident at work.
- Does the business have a reasonable, unambiguous wellbeing strategy that is composed and given to the workers concerning the standard that was disregarded?
- Did the worker receive training on the safety rule that was broken?
- Is the punishment the employer wants to impose proportional to the violation the employee committed? In other words, is the punishment appropriate for the offense?
- Has the employer consistently applied and enforced the safety rule that was broken in the past, particularly with regard to employees who broke the rule but were not hurt?
Here, the employer wants to be able to demonstrate that the punishment it wants to impose is only for breaking the safety rule and has nothing to do with reporting the injury. Naturally, the employer must record the discipline in the employee’s personnel file, just like they would with any other form of discipline.
In such a circumstance, the following are additional considerations to make:
Workers’ compensation is the most common remedy for workplace injuries:
Similar to their rights under the OSH Act, employees disciplined or fired following a workers’ compensation claim can also make a legal argument. In a nutshell, employees are entitled to file a workers’ compensation claim in the event of an injury at work. A violation of public policy claim can result from discipline or termination following such a claim. This means that it is against public policy to punish an employee for exercising their right to file a workers’ compensation claim following a workplace injury. In relation to this kind of claim, the same precautions and considerations that were highlighted in the OSH Act discussion need to be taken into account.
Machine and Non-Machine Factors Contributing to Industrial Accidents
The following are the primary factors that contribute to accidents:
- Machine Elements:
Technical factors are another name for these factors. The faulty mechanical or physical conditions are referred to as machine factors. Even though they are less common, they tend to be of a serious nature, resulting in serious or fatal injuries.
Among these are the following:-
- Equipment that is not properly or adequately protected.
- Equipment flaws.
- Inadequate tools.
- Plant deficiencies.
- External Factors:
Around 80% mishaps happen due to non-machine factors.
These factors can be broken down into two groups:
(i) General Factors:
Among these are the following:
- A carelessly discarded wire nail prick from the workplace.
- Tumbling down from stepping stool or sneaking off the stepping stool itself, particularly in development work/fixing/advancing/support work, and so on.
- Stacking or dumping of weighty material without taking due care or without giving appropriate advance notice.
- Inappropriate foot supports or grips
- Not wearing right dress while dealing with or close to an uncovered moving piece of a machine.
- Welding without goggles.
- The hammerheads or chisels, or even the hammer itself, flying off.
- There was no machine inspection by experts.
- Poor working practices.
- Ineffective leadership and supervision.
(ii) Personal Factors:
These variables connect with how an individual often has an accident. There are a couple of people who engage in additional mishaps than others.
These might come in form of:
- Limited vision
- A weak body
- Having conditions like high blood pressure, seizures, epilepsy, etc.
- Immaturity, recklessness, etc.
- Being color blind
- Tiredness
- Anxiety, sadness, etc.
- Neglecting safety instructions
- Emotional instability; excessive sensitivity, among other things.
- Dependency on alcohol, drugs, etc.
- Daydreaming
- Not Thinking, and
- Dissatisfaction
READ: What Is Unfair Dismissal; And What Are My Rights
Different business related factors which make accidents happen are the following:
- Type of Work:
Accidents are brought on by the nature of the job itself. A few positions are more inclined to accidents when contrasted with others, e.g., occupation of a crane administrator when contrasted with a foreman. For the most part, positions are clumsier where the laborers come into direct contact with hardware moving or unsafe materials like various kinds of synthetic substances, explosives, and so on.
- The nature of the equipment and machinery:
There are machinery and equipment with higher danger zones than others. For instance, hand lift trucks, wheel borrows, and other handling and lifting equipment are the scene of roughly one third of accidents. The most serious accidents usually occur near stairs, ladders, walkways, scaffolds, and handrails as well as transmission machinery like gears, pulleys, and flywheels.
Similarly, electrical equipment like extension cords, electric drop lights, and hand tools like chisels and screw drivers are also significant causes of accidents. Boilers, chemical tanks, gas storage devices, etc. cause serious incidents in the workplace.
- Unsafe physical Conditions:
Even though the nature of jobs, machinery, and equipment affects every organization in the same way, they can cause accidents if they are not set up or maintained properly.
The following types of unsafe working conditions are responsible for accidents:
- Unsafe format of plant and hardware.
- Improper procedures for working in and around machinery and equipment.
- Equipment and machinery that are defective.
- Risky capacity, blockage, and over-burdening.
- Faulty and inadequate safety measures.
- Bad lighting such as glare or too little light.
- Inappropriate ventilation causing lack of air charge and unclean air source.
- Psychological Stress in the Workplace:
Accidents are also caused by psychological conditions at work, in addition to physical conditions. Mental exhaustion, anxiety, monotony, boredom, frustration, and other emotions are all examples of psychological factors. Workers become more susceptible to accidents as a result of inattention brought on by all of these factors.
- Work Timetables:
Accidents can also be partially attributed to work schedules. Fatigue which may be the root cause of accidents, is caused by work schedules that require continuous work for long periods of time. Also, night shifts produce more accidents as individuals are not familiar with working in night which is viewed as the rest period. It has been observed that late-night work schedules are associated with more accidents than early-morning ones.
READ: Can I Sue My Employer For An Accident At Work?
Additionally, activities that are not carried out in accordance with the established guidelines or standards constitute unsafe behaviors.
Examples include the following:
- Working without power.
- Failure to use safety equipment.
- Inattention to warnings.
- Operating equipment and machines at an unsafe speed.
- Utilizing risky supplies or utilizing gears dangerously.
- Involving risky strategies in stacking, setting, blending, and consolidating.
- Adjustment, maintenance, repair, etc. on moving machinery.
- Any other illegal action related to prescriptions.
In any case, not all people are vulnerable to such hazardous demonstrations yet their own qualities are significant variables.