for Prof. Shaukat only

Case # 1

The company and union are now in the 4th year of a 5 year labor contract.

When the contract was approved it contained the following language:

“The company and the union support a zero tolerance policy which is intended for the safety of all employees. Any employee who is found to be impaired at work by their use of substances such as alcohol or illegal drugs may be subject to immediate termination”.

Yesterday an employee came to work viably impaired and when confronted admitted he was “under the influence” of Medical Marijuana that had been prescribed for him by his doctor. Such legal prescriptions were not legally available or even contemplated 5 years ago when the contract was negotiated .

The company nevertheless immediately fired this employee .

Case #2

A nurse at a Univ. Hospital was terminated for both administering an incorrect drug to a patient and then changing the patient’s records in the hospital system to “cover up” her mistake.

Facts:

The Nurse has been employed for 27 year at the same hospital and has an unblemished record.

The nurse’s actions were not uncovered for over a year when an annual audit review turned up the record discrepancy.

Upon being confronted with her action the Nurse acknowledged she made the mistake but as her error had no impact on the patient’s health she decided to “ just fix it” and move on.

The Hospitals position is that her actions were extremely serious, unethical at best and perhaps even illegal. Then her “cover up” of her error made her actions intolerable and she was terminated .

The union argues that the nurse made a mistake, she realized her error when she came to work the next day, and in exercising poor judgement decided to fix it herself which she did.

While showing very poor judgement, she should not be fired for this first lapse in 27 years.

Case #3

The Union Contract states that every employee is entitled to 3 personal days off each year that they may use for whatever reason.

Once an employee has used up those 3 days they must adhere to the following attendance policy.

2 more absences in a calendar year and you receive a verbal waring about you unacceptable attendance

2 more absences after that in a calendar you receive a written warning that your attendance is unacceptable.

2 more absences after that in a calendar year and you get a 1 week suspension without pay as a final warning that any further absences will result in termination.

Employee is absent again for the 10th time this year and is terminated.

Employee who has been with the company for 5 years ( some previous attendance problems in prior years but never this bad) argues that his last absence should be excused. There was a terrible snowstorm blizzard and the public schools were closed. While businesses were open as well as mass transit and all the highways the employee argues that he had no one to care of his kids who were at home when the schools closed as his wife had to go to work at the hospital where she works as nurse.

Case #4

A new employee is assigned a company desktop computer and advised in writing regarding the company’s policy regarding employee use of company computers.

The policy states that employees may use company computers for personal use up to 4 hrs per month ( an application monitors it’s use) Employees are told they should feel free to check their personal emails , do some quick on line shopping on their breaks, perhaps check sport scores or news etc.

The policy also contains a very strong warning and prohibition that employees may not use company equipment to access any inappropriate sites such as sports betting, adult sites, even dating sites etc .. The policy clearly states that the company reserves the right and will monitor employee on line activities.

There is also a very strong warning to employees advising them that they are not to open or download any Links or Applications that have not been cleared for security purposes.. especially if a you get a pop up screen notice that the site you are going to is not protected or secure . Violations of this policy which is strictly monitored may result in immediate termination .

This employee, on a coffee break, checks his personal email and opens a note from a friend he knows. This friend invites him to check out a video and offered him a link to it. When clicks on the link to open it he gets a warning pop up message on his screen telling him the link may be compromised and unsafe and not to open it. He ignores the warning and does so any.

The link ends up being a virus that not only attaches itself his desktop but to everyone else he send emails to.. eventually that virus crashes the entire company network .

The company’s internet security consultants are able to track that virus directly to this employees actions. The employee is therefore immediately terminated..