You work really hard to make sure that every time your customers have a good experience. However, it’s not always your work or your products that are the problem. Your employees are the ones who are refusing to work.
As productivity, quality, and safety are all interdependent, it’s important to exercise caution when workers decline to report for duty for safety-related reasons. Here’s what you should do if workers use safety as an excuse not to show up to work.
Workers’ Right to Refuse Dangerous Work
To begin with, you must be aware that regardless of whether your company has a stop-work policy, employees have the ability to decline dangerous jobs from an OSHA standpoint.
Under the General Duty Clause, employers have a duty to provide a safe workplace for their workers, and workers have a right to report unsafe working conditions without fear of retaliation. Employees are advised to bring up issues with their bosses first, and then, if necessary, file a formal complaint. If the condition is not fixed, workers have the option to refuse risky work.
Power of a Stop Work Order
The ability to stop work is an extremely powerful and important tool for protecting employees. Employees exercising stop-work authority when they decline to report to work out of safety concerns. Even if there is no formal stop-work policy in existence at the place of employment, employees may still use this power.
Employees have the right to refuse dangerous labor if they have reason to believe that doing so will jeopardize their personal safety. This is known as the “stop-work power.”
What Should You Do If Employees Use Safety to Avoid Work?
Employees must decline to work in good faith if they fear they are in imminent danger. Furthermore, any reasonable person assessing the situation must agree that there is a real threat of death or serious injury, and the hazard must be severe enough that waiting for standard rectification procedures, such as an OSHA inspection, is not safe.
If your employees refuse to work because they are concerned about their safety, you must conduct an investigation, regardless of whether you feel the concerns are valid. Remember that OSHA almost always rules in favor of the employees, and it is the employer’s responsibility to make the workplace safe in the eyes of OSHA.
Essentially, deciding what to do when employees use safety as an excuse to avoid work is simple: you must address the issue, which means investigating and correcting the problem. If you suspect an employee is just refusing to work, you must show that their refusal is not in good faith.
Resources for Creating a Safe and Productive Workplace
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