When is Discipline Justified?

Steven Geigle, www.oshatrain.org

Discipline is justified when managers have fulfilled basic safety obligations to employees first. When these obligations are fulfilled, the safety management system is not failing employees. If these obligations are not fulfilled, the system is failing employees so discipline is not likely justified.

The audio clip is addressing discipline after an accident. Remember, disciplining employees because they've had an accident is never appropriate. For example, if an employee gets hurt, does not violate a safety rule, discipline is, of course, not justified. If an employee gets hurt and violates a safety rule, but the safety management system has somehow failed the employee (root causes have been discovered for the accident) discipline is not justified. Finally, if the employee gets hurt, violates a safety rule, and no root causes can be found for the accident, it's likely discipline is justified for the non-compliance. In every case, discipline is not justified just because the employee got hurt.

It's critical to understand that before administering progressive discipline, managers and supervisors should evaluate how well they, themselves, have fulfilled their basic obligations to employees. This is important to make sure they are actually justified in administering corrective actions.

Determining the appropriateness of administering negative consequences does not have to be difficult. It can be a simple straightforward process: All that's required is that you honestly answer the following five questions in the affirmative:

1. Have I provided (or has the employee received) quality safety training? The employee has the required knowledge and skills to comply. The employee understands the natural and system consequences of noncompliance.
2. Have I provided the employee with a safe and health workplace? Do they have the physical resources and psychosocial support to comply?
3. Have I applied safety accountability fairly and consistently in the past? Does the employee know he or she will be disciplined if caught? Or, do they know that all you will do is threaten them..."if I catch you doing that again."
4. Have I provided adequate safety supervision? I'm not stuck in my office all day...I'm overseeing their work regularly so that I'm able to "catch" unsafe behaviors and hazardous conditions before they cause an injury.
5. Have I demonstrated safety leadership? Have I been setting the proper example by not violating or ignoring safety rules? Do I have a double standard?

If managers can honestly answer yes to each of the above questions, it is probably appropriate to administer discipline because all of the basic obligations to employees has been fulfilled. On the other hand, if these basic obligations have not been met, apology, rather than discipline is the leadership response.

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