Worker Safety
• Do workers have a right to a
reasonably safe work
environment?
• What does that right entail?
• What mechanisms are
available to ensure that this
right is protected?
Right to worker safety
• OSHA: “right to safe and
healthful working conditions…
and workplaces that are free of
known dangers.”
http://www.osha.gov/Publicatio
ns/osha3021.pdf
Mechanisms to protect
right to safety
•
•
•
•
•
In house compliance efforts
Moral Persuasion
Professional Codes
Union contracts
Regulatory agencies
– Regulations
– Oversight
– Enforcement
• Criminal law
• Civil law
In House Compliance
• 4 Elements of Ethics Compliance
• Element 1: Risk Assessment
• Element 2: Corporate Culture
• Element 3: Oversight by the Board
and Senior Management
• Element 4: The Ethics and
Compliance Office
Moral persuasion and
professional codes
• Moral persuasion
– Moral persuasion can be used to
build coalitions and provide
pressure on both offending
organizations and political
bodies.
• Professional codes
– Professional organizations can
use their educational and
enforcement powers to motivate
compliance with safety
guidelines.
Regulatory Agencies
• OSHA
• Cal OSHA
– “California workers have the right
to a safe workplace and a
number of other more specific
rights under the California
Occupational Safety and Health
Act.”
http://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/Work
ersRights.htm
Legal Remedies
• Criminal law
– Corporations, and individuals
within corporations, can be
prosecuted under the criminal
law for many safety violations.
• Civil law
– Organizations can be sued for
injuries and illness caused by
safety violations.
• Administrative law
– Regulations and enforcement
available under OSHA and
CalOSHA
When Remedies Fail
• Failure of internal compliance
• Moral persuasion not backed
up with enforcement
• Professional codes weak,
spotty enforcement
When Remedies Fail
• Regulatory agencies
understaffed, insufficient
penalties
• Criminal enforcement spotty,
weak penalties
• Civil lawsuits not an option if
one uses worker’s
compensation system
Union Contracts
• Definitions of safety
• Oversight
– Safety Committees
– Independent monitoring
– Accompany OSHA inspectors
– Member education
• Enforcement mechanisms
– Investigate complaints
– File grievance
Should we allow
unions?
• Utilitarianism
– Social utility:
• yes--better working conditions
• no--higher cost of doing business.
• Kant
– Treating workers as ends in
themselves
• Moral rights
– Rights that are asserted:
• To association, to safety
• To property
Should we allow
unions?
• Virtue
– Fairness, loyalty
• Care
– Seeing employees as members
of community
• Basic justice
– Protection from arbitrary power,
democracy, liberty of association
National Labor
Relations Act
• Protects employee rights to
– Form, join, decertify or assist
a union
– Bargain collectively through
such a union
– Refrain from joining a union
– Team up with other employees
to improve working conditions
without a union
NLRB
• Forbids employers and unions
from
– Interfering with their employees’
right
• to form, join or assist a union
• to refrain from union activities
• to team up with other workers
informally to improve terms and
conditions of work
– https://www.nlrb.gov/rights-weprotect