The last thing anyone wants is to be injured at work. There are many things to do, places to go and people to see when we are not at work.

Whatever you may think, workplace accidents can, and do happen every day. Our aim from this article is to help employers think about the workplace and safety to prevent accidents before any employee has to file a claim.

Offices

Are offices dangerous? Yes. Do they need to be dangerous? No, but all too often we take safety as someone else’s responsibility and fail to act to prevent accidents happening today. Another bad excuse is that safety is always a problem for tomorrow and not for today. If we act in a safe manner today then we will prevent accidents rather than encourage them.
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In the 21st Century people in the Western World are far more sensitive to sexual innuendo and harassment than 30 or 40 years ago. Take a look at the early Bond movies and you will see what would be today construed as sexual harassment. The films where Pierce Brosnan played James Bond show Miss Moneypenny as being a far different character. The last two films don’t feature the relationship between Bond and Moneypenny at all.

All offices have a certain amount of banter and that is good, and only to be expected when there are friends working together. The problem comes when the banter becomes innuendo or overtly sexual. This can be the case when a woman comes into a workplace that previously had been an all-male preserve, or equally where a man comes into an all-female office or shop. The existing relationships and the banter that come out of them can easily be sexual until the rest of the employees are shown that they should consider what they are saying and why.
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In the USA we live in a society where we use our work to provide for food, clothing and shelter. Most of us do not have so-called “tied” homes where an employer provides a home while we work for them. We live in a society that is supported by laws, which means our living is regulated to aim for fair treatment for employers and employees. Some regulations seem to help employees more than employers, others help both.
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Here we are looking at the seven characteristics that can give rise to an accusation of discrimination against an employer. These are age, race, sex, religion, national origin, disability or pregnancy. The definition of disability is looked at in our article on “Disability – no reason for discrimination or termination”. The rest of the seven characteristics are more clear-cut and easy to understand.

The major turning points for an employee’s career can be seen as promotion, job assignment, termination and wage increases. Job assignment is the most difficult one to look at and control. It would be difficult to ignore that an employee, or employee’s partner, is due to give birth at a time which is crucial for the completion of a project. This is especially true when considering which people should be assigned to any project. The same could be said of someone who is due to have major surgery which is planned to take place at a crucial time in the project. However, such considerations can be construed as illegal and care must be exercised, remembering the fact of the birth, does not become an illegal reason to choose someone else to work on any project or to have any given role in the company.
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On the surface it looks so simple, but at its heart there is a great deal of complexity that can cause problems for the unsuspecting employer or employee and cost thousands of dollars in compensation for the employer or the employee could lose their job.

The first limitation on the FMLA for employees to notice is that is does not apply to small employers or small work locations. If the employer has less than 50 employees within 75 miles of the employee’s workplace, then the act is not relevant. However, if the employer is relocating an office then it may have a considerable bearing. Consider when an employer has two offices, each with 25 employees and 80 miles apart this business does not come under the terms of the act. However if one of the offices moves making it less than 75 miles apart, then it falls under the act. This is a simple example, but you should consider a company with 5 or 6 teams of 25 people who are moving from one site to another in West Virginia, they could easily fall in and out of the act. It would be possible for an attorney to claim they would always be within the act.
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