Safety and Human Resource Law for the Safety Professional

359 Pages·2019·5.067 MB·\359

by  Thomas D. Schneid (Author)

Reference Page – Law Cases
Contents Contents
Safety and Human
Resource Law for the Safety
Professional
Occupational Safety and Health Guide Series
Series Editor: Thomas D. Schneid, Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, Kentucky
The aim of this series is to develop books to address the myriad of unique topics which are
encompassed within the areas of responsibility of a safety professional. The scope of the series is
broad, addressing traditional occupational safety and health topics as well as emerging and cor-
relating topic areas, such as ergonomics, security, labor, school safety, employment, workplace
violence, and other topics. Safety professionals often assume a broad spectrum of responsibilities,
depending on the organization, which go beyond the traditional safety professional’ s role. This
series should become the “ one stop” source for safety professionals to locate texts on traditional
as well as emerging and correlating subjects related to the safety and health function.
Safety Law
Legal Aspects in Occupational Safety and Health
Thomas D. Schneid
Physical Hazards of the Workplace
Barry Spurlock
Loss Prevention and Safety Control
Terms and Definitions
Dennis P. Nolan
Discrimination Law Issues for the Safety Professional
Thomas D. Schneid
Labor and Employment Issues for the Safety Professional
Thomas D. Schneid
The Comprehensive Handbook of School Safety
Edited by E. Scott Dunlap
Creative Safety Solutions
Thomas D. Schneid
Physical Security and Safety
A Field Guide for the Practitioner
Edited by Truett A. Ricks, Bobby E. Ricks, and Jeffrey Dingle
Workplace Safety and Health
Assessing Current Practices and Promoting Change in the Profession
Thomas D. Schneid
For more information about this series, please visit: https ://ww w.crc press .com/ Occup ation al-Sa
fety-- Healt h-Gui de-Se ries/ book- serie s/CRC OCCSH GS
Safety and Human
Resource Law for the Safety
Professional
Thomas D. Schneid
With Contributions by
Shelby L. Schneid
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
© 2019 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
No claim to original U.S. Government works
Printed on acid-free paper
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-138-19621-6 (Hardback)
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Schneid, Thomas D., author.
Title: Safety and human resource law for the safety professional / authored
by Thomas D. Schneid.
Description: Boca Raton : Taylor & Francis, 2019. | Series: Occupational
safety and health guide series
Identifiers: LCCN 2018055113| ISBN 9781138196216 (hardback : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781315302713 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Industrial safety--Law and legislation--United States.
Classification: LCC KF3570 .S363 2019 | DDC 344.7304/65--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018055113
Visit the Taylor & Francis Website at
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and the CRC Press Website at
http://www.crcpress.com
Contents
Foreword ..................................................................................................................vii
Preface.......................................................................................................................ix
Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................xiii
Author ......................................................................................................................xv
Chapter 1 The Safety Function and the Law ........................................................1
Chapter 2 Talent Acquisition and Education: Interviewing,
Hiring, and Training ...........................................................................27
Chapter 3 Job Descriptions: The Key to Hiring Success ...................................53
Chapter 4 Employee Motivation and Progressive Discipline .............................73
Chapter 5 Safety and Employee Behavioral Issues in the Workplace ................85
Chapter 6 Preparing for OSHA: Standards, Violations, and Actions .................95
Chapter 7 Violations and Appeal: The Occupational Safety and
Health Review Commission .............................................................113
Chapter 8 OSHA Enforcement and Whistleblower Protections .......................153
Chapter 9 Anti-Discrimination Laws Impacting Safety and Health ................163
Chapter 10 Family and Medical Leave Act ........................................................183
Chapter 11 The Americans with Disabilities Act and Safety .............................205
Chapter 12 Federal Wage and Hour Laws ..........................................................229
v
vi Contents
Chapter 13 National Labor Relations Act and Unfair Labor Practices ..............249
Chapter 14 State Workers’ Compensation Laws .................................................265
Chapter 15 e-Workplace: Privacy Laws, Cybersecurity, and Social Media .......275
Chapter 16 Retirement and Welfare Laws ..........................................................295
Chapter 17 Emerging Issues: Guns, Grass, Drones, and the Safety
Profession .........................................................................................315
Reference Page – Law Cases ...............................................................................327
Index ......................................................................................................................329
Foreword
In today’s highly specialized society where we educate our safety professionals
on all of the fundamentals of safety compliance, auditing, safety metrics, machine
guarding, accident investigations, and chemical process safety (to name a few), we
now have a very timely book from Dr. Thomas D. Schneid that addresses many of
those issues that may, at first blush, appear merely ancillary to the function of the
average safety professional. However, these are truly key areas of knowledge that
all safety professionals need to be aware of, be able to recognize, and deal with to
become a more well- rounded safety professional.
To give readers just one example of how this may apply, consider the following
scenario I had a few years ago, when I was brought in as the outside legal labor and
employment counsel to a manufacturing company that was starting to hear rumors
of a union trying to organize its non-union workforce. We scheduled a meeting with
upper management to begin training them on how to deal with union organizing,
the dos and don’ts of when a union comes calling on your employees. In fact, what
happened that first day I showed up was that the company received a letter from the
union, asking them if they wanted to voluntarily recognize the union because they
claimed to already have a majority of employees who had signed union authoriza-
tion cards. A few days later, one of the lead employees of the organizing campaign
stopped the company president in the plant and told him that the company’s new
safety manager, who had been hired only a few weeks before, was going around the
plant asking employees as to which employees were key players in the union election
and why they wanted a union. Of course, he thought he was being proactive for the
company. In fact, he was violating the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which
prohibits employers from coercively questioning employees about their activities,
support, or sympathies for a union. It also prohibits polling employees about their
support for a union. This is a violation of the employees’ Section 7 rights and is an
unfair labor practice under Section 8(a)(1) of the Act.
This book also deals with those other key issues such as the FMLA, ADA, and
Workers’ Compensation that has a huge impact on dealing with workers and injured
workers. I highly recommend this book to any safety professional who wants to
broaden their knowledge and become a true well-rounded safety professional.
Michael S. Schumann, M.S., J.D., PhD, CSHM
Professor
Occupational Safety
Department of Safety, Security & Emergency Management
Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, Kentucky
vii
Reference Page – Law Cases
Preface
ANALYZING AND BRIEFING A COURT DECISION
Safety professionals work with and for the law on a daily basis. In the United States,
laws can be made by the executive branch (i.e., executive orders) or the legislative
branch (i.e., new laws) and the judicial branch reviews and assesses the validity and
applicability of these laws. This assessment by the judicial branch of our government
is often called “ case law” and is the evaluation, assessment, and decisions of the
courts at all levels up to, and including, the U.S. Supreme Court.
Safety professionals should be aware that there are state courts as well as federal
courts, and even specialty courts, such as Family Law Courts and Traffic Courts.
Although the court name may vary, both the state and federal courts possess a hier-
archy wherein each court decision can be appealed to a higher court by any of the
parties involved in the actions. The highest court in most state judiciary systems as
well as the federal judiciary system is the Supreme Court. For safety professionals
who may be unfamiliar with their individual state judiciary system or the federal
judiciary system, it is important to acquire a basic knowledge of the levels of the
courts, namely the specialty courts, such as the tax court, the district, or trial courts,
where most trials take place, the appellate courts, and the state top court or the U.S.
Supreme Court.
When reading a court decision, safety professionals may wish utilize the follow-
ing outline:
1. Identify the court and date of the case at the top of the decision.
2. Look up any legal terms you are not familiar with.
3. Read the case in total.
4. Determine the type of case you are reading.
5. Review the case summary or headnotes.
6. Read the case again and identify the court’ s decision.
7. If an appellate case, identify if the decision was unanimous or a split
decision.
8. Did the minority provide a dissenting opinion?
9. Re-read the case. Identify the parties, issues, and facts of the case.
10. Brief your case in writing so you will remember the issues, facts, and deci-
sion at a later date.
Safety professionals should be aware that although the courts are not supposed to
make law, their decisions are in fact shaping and making new law. The decisions of
the courts are often called “ case law,” which is the accumulation of court decisions
that provide guidance and direction on current and future cases and decisions. As
identified above, cases usually start at the lowest level in either the state or federal
judiciary system and are appealed upward within the system to the top court, but can
ix