But something which is often overlooked is the mental health implications of accidents suffered at work. These can be much more serious than the burden of recovering from a physical injury.

Thomas Corr was a maintenance engineer working to repair a car panel machine. As he was bent down examining the fault, the machine suddenly picked up a car panel and swung it at his head.

Luckily, Mr Corr ducked instinctively and narrowly avoided being decapitated by the incident. However, he did receive a heavy blow to the head and had his right ear severed by the unpredictable machine.

While his ear healed in time and ceased to cause Mr Corr any pain, he began to suffer from tinnitus and severe migraines as a result of his injury.

The tinnitus and debilitating headaches began to have an effect on his mental state as he slowly succumbed to depression in the years following the accident.

Eventually, six years after the accident, unable to take it any longer, Mr Corr committed suicide by jumping from the top a multi storey car park.

The deterioration of his mental health was brought on by his accident at work, which consequently led to his death.

After a lengthy court battle, Mr Corr’s window was awarded compensation as his Mr Corr’s employer was deemed ultimately responsible for his death, despite him committing suicide so long after the incident.

The employer had admitted that Mr Corr’s depression was a reasonably forseeable consequence of the incident.

Carys is an author of several articles pertaining to No Win No Fee, Compensation Claims, Personal Injury Claims and other legal articles.

Source: http://www.articleheaven.com/article_553138_18.html

Employee blogging can involve the disclosure of confidential business information, disparagement or criticism of other employees or of the company itself, and display interests that are in conflict with the company contracts and policies. The trend these days show the court’s support for employers who decided to terminate a particular employee who was found to be engaging in behavior that is in conflict with the company’s best interest.

It has actually been established that employees who damage their employer via blogging are violating their obligation to be loyal to the company. This duty of loyalty encompasses duties of confidentiality and obedience. On the other hand, this duty of loyalty is violated in cases of disparagement of the managers, criticism of the company, harmful speech and insubordination. One example of an employee blogging that became a problem for the employer involved a flight attendant who posted provocative photos of herself wearing her airline uniform. Another employee, hired by Google, posted his criticism and other impressions of his employer. A Microsoft employee also took photos of several Apple computers as they were delivered and posted them on his personal blog. All these employees, in this case, were terminated on the basis of their personal blog content.

The blog monitoring being conducted by these employers is being considered by many employees as a violation of their “right to free speech.” This right to free speech, however, as indicated in the First Amendment, only covers the government’s restrictions on individuals or groups. But in “employment-at-will” states, existing law allows employers to terminate employees who were found to be disloyal to the company. Even so, employers should be very careful when involved in situations involving employee blogging. If they are not careful, they could damage their reputation in the business community especially if they were seen as being too intrusive to their employee’s personal activities.

In order to avoid these concerns, employers should implement general employee blogging policies, which will cover blogging agreements and procedures to be followed for employee blogging. These policies should also cover the use of electronic resources as well as rules on harassment, discrimination and non-disclosure. The agreement between employers and employees must also include in detail policies and guidelines involving the removal and use of confidential company information and rules for the use of company-sponsored blogs. In case the employer has not yet created guidelines for internet usage, the company should immediately come up with one. The employer should then advise their employees that they will be monitoring personal internet use especially during work hours. Lastly, employers must check the present condition of their internet security in order to know if they are at risk for data mismanagement including internet sites and archived emails. The general policies covering such internet usage and blogging should guarantee that the employees will not be able to disparage or criticize their employers and should promote confidentiality and professionalism.

While employee blogging guidelines may result in communication limitations, employers should be careful not to impede on labor laws, whistleblower statutes and other employment-at will policies. The employers should be aware that there are states that consider it illegal to terminate employees for off-site or private activities unrelated to their employment. There are also cases where termination is deemed illegal when the employee posted the company’s illegal activities on their blog. In connection, employees should be allowed to post statements related to union organizing and other similar activities. In other words, employee blogging policies should be drafted based upon these considerations.

It is recommended that employers assign an individual to do the blog monitoring. There are actually public corporations that are obligated to monitor employee communications as part of state or federal regulation. On the other hand, private corporations are allowed to monitor communications to make sure that their employees are not involved in improper conduct such as disclosure of confidential company information. More importantly, a company should create an employee blogging policy that adheres to the guidelines set by the National Labor Relations Act, where blogging activities are protected. Employers should make sure that their monitoring does not violate any NLRA policies on blogging. Informing employees of any revisions to the existing policies or changes in implementing guidelines is equally important.

About the Author

Robert Masud, Esq. is the principal of Masud & Company LLC, a law firm for the world of business, finance and the internet.
Find out how our lawyers can help you at http://www.masudco.com.

Author Profile: robertmasudesq

Article Source: Populate.NET Article Directory