When you discipline a worker, you should anticipate that your actions will be challenged in court or arbitration--particularly if the worker belongs to a union. To survive such a challenge and make discipline stick, you must be prepared to defend your decisions. To do that, you'll need documentation that shows what you did and why. Let's discuss how to create this documentation.

Don't Take Shortcuts on the Paperwork

Employers must keep detailed records like memos to files, written notices, notes summarizing conversations, etc., each time they apply progressive discipline against a worker. Disciplining a worker can be a tremendous ordeal for everybody involved. So it might be easy to put off the paperwork or overlook it altogether.

But without documentation, you're a sitting duck in court or at arbitration. If you try to go back and create the documentation after the fact, you'll also be in deep trouble. "When it comes to documentation, you need to do it while the actions and memories are fresh," explains Washington, DC, lawyer and SafetyXChange advisor, Harold Engel. "The longer you wait, the staler and less credible your case is likely to become," he adds.

THE STORY OF MEL

What kind of documentation should you create? Instead of explaining in the abstract, let's use a hypothetical case to illustrate. The "star" of this case is Mel O'Drama, a construction worker who has been with the company for five years and never been disciplined for anything. But as our story begins, Mel is about to shed his status as model employee and become a major headache.

Chapter 1: Mel Gets His First Warning

Mel's supervisor, Lee Dingmann, spots Mel on a construction site without his hardhat on. Lee tells Mel to get his hardhat on. Mel complies immediately. Mel is the last guy Lee expects to find walking around a construction site bareheaded and dismisses the incident as an honest mistake not deserving of discipline. Mel probably "just spaced out," he figures.

Three days later, Lee once more sees Mel working without his hardhat. So he decides to issue a warning before things get out of hand. Here's an example of an appropriate warning:

"Mel, you're a good and reliable worker. But this morning I saw you near the lift hoist without a hardhat. You've been here long enough to know that it's dangerous--not to mention against company policy--not to wear a hardhat on site at all times. So what's the story?"

[Let Mel give his side of the story]

"Seeing that this is the second time in less than a week that I've caught you without a hardhat, I'm going to give you a formal warning. Just wear your hardhat from now on, all right?"

After giving Mel the warning, the supervisor should write a memo for the files. You can see the Model Memo in the Tools section of SafetyXChange.

Conclusion

Sometimes a warning is all it takes to solve a problem. Unfortunately, Mel's situation isn't such a case. As we'll see when we pick up our story next week, Mel's refusal to wear hardhats will prove a persistent problem, one calling for the application of more advanced stages of progressive discipline.

MEMBER REPLY

A Warning Isn't Enough for Some First Offenses

Member Comment: Regarding the October 29th article about progressive discipline & safety infractions, part 2. Step 1 states: "Workers who commit safety violations should get at least one verbal warning." Perhaps under some, maybe even most situations this is an accurate comment; however, there certainly are times and situations where the safety violation is severe enough that a verbal warning is not strong enough, i.e., when an employee may operate a piece of equipment for which they have not been trained or authorized.

Phillip Wells

Reply: You're 100% right, Phil. This series and the corresponding hypothetical are designed to illustrate a "pure" application of the progressive discipline process, stage by stage. But in the real world, applying progressive discipline is not a simple by-the-numbers formula. Some violations call for something sterner than a warning - perhaps even immediate termination - even if it's the employee's first offense. You must use your judgment and consider all of the circumstances in deciding what discipline is appropriate.

Glenn Demby

* * * * *

QUESTION FROM A MEMBER

How do you approach progressive discipline for employees with a high-frequency accident history? For example, if someone incurs three injuries (from first aid to medical treatment) in less than a year, what approach does one take in coaching and proceeding to further disciplinary actions?

Send Your Answers to: glennd@bongarde.com. Indicate whether you'd like us to print your name and company. We'll print any responses we receive in next week's issue.

PANDEMIC INFLUENZA
Are the Labs Prepared?

By Glenn Demby

Public health officials are counting on clinical labs to play a major role in pandemic influenza response. Influenza preparedness planning assigns eight crucial tasks to labs:

A new government report casts doubt on the capacity of labs to carry out these functions. According to the Office of Investigator General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, while labs in all 50 states are prepared to fulfill tasks 1 and 2:

Public health labs tend to be better prepared than private labs for pandemic influenza, the report adds.

Source: "Laboratory Preparedness for Pandemic Influenza," U.S. Dept. HHS, OIG, Oct. 24, 2007, http://www.oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-04-07-00670.pdf

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