2. SAFETY, RESPONSIBILITIES AND
RIGHTS
• Safety and Risk
• Assessment of Safety and Risk
• Risk Benefit Analysis and Reducing Risk
• Respect for Authority
• Collective Bargaining
• Confidentiality
• Conflicts of Interest
• Occupational Crime
• Professional Rights
• Employee Rights
• Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
• Discrimination
3. Safety & Risk
• Safety was defined as the risk that is known and judged
as acceptable. But, risk is a potential that
something unwanted and harmful may occur .
• Probability of safety = 1 – Probability of risk.
• Risk = Probability of occurrence × Consequence in
magnitude
4. Drawbacks of Lawrence's Definition
• Under-Estimate Risk
– Misjudgment of person
– Example: Coil Type Water heater
• Over-Estimation of Risk
– Products Risks comparatively less risks
– But people thinks “Unsafe”
– Example: Chlorine in drinking water
• No estimation of Risk
– Person who does not judge about risks
– Example: LPG Car
5. A modified Definition by Lowrence
• “ A thing is safe ( to certain degree) with
respect to a given person or group at a given
time, it its risks were fully known, if those risks
would be judged acceptable (to certain
degree), in light of settled value principles”
– Here things means not only products but also
services, processes etc.,
6. Relatively Safety (fairly safety)
• Safety is expressed in terms of degree and
comparisons.
• It means safety of the thing in comparison
with safety of similar things
• Example
• Air travel> Car Travel > Bike Travel
7. Engineers and Safety
• Safety should be integral part of any engineering
design.
• In order to ensure safety following criteria should
meet
– Design follow legal standards
– Alternate designs that are potentially safer should be
explored.
– All possible misuse by the consumer should be
identified, and that is to be avoided
– Designed product should be tested using prototypes
8. Designing for safety
• Alan D.Wilcox has summarized the process of
incorporating safety into the engineering design as
follows
– 1. Define the problem (issues of safety in the product
design)
– 2. Generate alternate design solutions
– Analyze each design solutions
– Test the solutions
– Select the best ones
– Implement the chosen solution
9. Risk
• Risk increases because engineers are constantly
involved in innovation.
• New machines are created and new compounds
synthesized always without full knowledge of their
long-term effects on humans or the environment.
10. Risk
• Risk Definition in dictionary “ possibility of
suffering harm or loss”
• Risk in technology could include dangers of
– bodily harm
– economic loss
– environmental degradation
• Engineers risk affects mostly the physical and
economical well being
– Example: Faulty design of chemical plant
• Causes of risk: Delayed job completion, faulty
products or systems
11. Natural Hazards and Disasters
• Natural hazards such as floods, earthquake,
volcanoes etc greatly threatens and damages
the long life of human populations
• A Disaster is a “ Serious disruptive event
agrees with a state of insufficient
preparations.”
12. Factors influencing Risk
• 1. Voluntary Vs In voluntary Risk
– If a person knowingly takes any risks, then he feels
it safe
– voluntary Risks are consider as safe (even if risks
are really Unsafe)
– Involuntary Risks are consider as unsafe (even if
risks are really Safe)
13. Factors influencing Risk
• 2.Short term vs Long term consequences
– If a thing will causes a short-lived illness or
disability is safer than the thing that will result in
permanent disability
• 3. Delayed vs immediate Risk
– An activity whose harm us delayed for many years
will seem less risky than something with an
immediate effect
14. Factors influencing Risk
• 4. Expected probability
– A relatively slight harm having more probability of
occurring seems to be greater / unacceptable risk
than a relatively a severe harm having lesser
probability of occurring
– Example : 600 people unsafe –
– Choose option 50% safe not probability
15. Factors influencing Risk
• 5. Reversible Effects
– Something will seem less risky if the bad effects
are ultimately reversible
• 6. Threshold levels of Risks
– Something that is risky only at fairly high
exposures will seem safer than something with
uniform exposure to risk
16. SAFETY AND RISK
Imagine you are a fresh graduate.
• You get a job as an engineer in a large atomic power plant.
• Would you take it or not?
• Under what conditions would you take it?
• Under what conditions would you not?
• Why?
People as Consumers:
• Active Consumers: directly involve themselves e.g., mowing the lawn,
washing clothes or toasting bread.
• Passive Consumers: have less choice and less control e.g., Water,
Electricity, Petrol,
• Bystanders: e.g., exposed to Pollution from unknown sources
17. Acceptability of Risk
• According to D.Rowe, “ A risk is acceptable
when those affected are generally no longer
apprehensive about it”
• Apprehensiveness- doubtfulness is mainly
depends on how the risk is perceived by
people
18. Elements of Risks
( Factors influencing the perception of Risk)
1. Whether risk is influenced voluntarily
2. The effect of knowledge on how the
probabilities of harm are perceived
3. Job related or other pressures that cause
people to be aware of risks
4. Whether the effects of risky activity or
situation are immediately noticeable
5. Whether the potential victims are
identifiable earlier
19. Acceptability of Risk
(Effect of Risk Assessment)
1.Voluntarism & Control
Voluntary Risk : If people take risk knowingly, then their
involvement of risk is known as voluntary risk
– Many people consider safer if they knowingly take on the risk. Also the
people believe that they have “Full Control” over their actions
– Example:
• Buying a Flat near chemical plant
• Participating in adventurous sports like bike race
• Controlled Risk: If the Risk taken within control limit
– Example: horseback riding hill climbing
20. Acceptability of Risk
(Effect of Risk Assessment)
2 Effect of Information on Risk Assessment:
• The information about the danger should be in systematic and
appropriate manner
• Many case studies have proved inappropriate manner lead to
danger
• Threshold limit varies person to person
• From many experiments drawn 2 conclusions
– Options perceived as yielding company gain will lead to preferred over
those from which gains are perceived as risky as convenient
– People tend to be more willing to take risk in order to perceived
company losses than they are to win only possible gains
21. Acceptability of Risk
(Effect of Risk Assessment)
3.Job Related Risk:
• The Exposure of Risk depends on the person’s job and his
work place
• The nature of the job, and the working environment will
determine the risk level of a person
– Example:
• People working in coalmines, oil mines chemical plants have probability of high risk
• Because of competition of survival
– The union and occupational safety regulations should regulate and
enforce the employers to facilitate the standard working environment
22. Acceptability of Risk
(Effect of Risk Assessment)
4. Magnitude and proximity:
• Our reaction to risk is affected by magnification and the
personal identification and relationship we have with the
victims
• For instance, We feel very bad if one of our close friends are
subjected to great harm
• Magnitude of risk and proximity with victims greatly influence
the degree of reaction of the risk
23. Lessons for the engineers
• Engineers have the challenge to face the following two different
public conceptions of safety
• Positive or optimistic Attitude
– Some people assume that things that are familiar, that have not hurt them
on which they have some control present to real risk
• Negative or pessimistic Attitude
– Some people feel feared when an accident kills or harms in large numbers
or affects their relations, they consider those risk as high risks
• Education will not quickly change under/over estimation
• The continuous & proper information about the dangers are
necessary to educate the people
• The risk communication and risk management efforts are
structured as two way process
24. Types of accident
• Procedural Accidents
– Result of someone making bad choice or not following established
rules
• Example: - Road accidents
• Engineered Accidents
– Caused by errors in design
• Example: minor casting defects in aircrafts turbine blade
• Systematic Accidents
– They are difficult to understand & difficult to control
– Complex organization that are required to operate them
• Example: US Space Shuttle
25. Determination of RISK
• In order to determine the risk one should have
knowledge about the following criterions
• 1. Knowledge of Risk
– To assess risk, an engineer must identify risk, for
that he must first know the information about the
safety of standard products.
– The past experience and historical data provide
good information.
– But historical data is inadequate.
• The information is not freely shared among firms.
26. Determination of RISK
• 2. Uncertainties in Design
– While designing a product, the design engineers
must deal with uncertainties
– The uncertainties are in the form of product,
materials used, economic conditions, temperature
etc.,
– The ‘Factor of safety’ is proposed to account for
unpredictably high loads . It must follow
– A product is said to be safe if its capability exceeds
its duty
27. Determination of RISK
3.Testing For Safety
• Once the product is designed, both prototypes
and finished devices must be thoroughly
tested
• It is essential that in engineering design, all
the safety systems to be tested
28. Determination of RISK
Different Approaches in testing
• Scenario Analysis
– The test starts from the given event, then studies the different moments
that might develop from it
• Failure Modes & Effective Analysis
– It systematically examines each and every components without focusing
on relationship among the elements of complex system
• Fault Tree Analysis
– This approach propose system failure and then traces the events back to
possible causes at component level
• Event Free Analysis
– This is the reverse of the fault free analysis.
– Mathematical oriented version of Testing
– This analysis is very useful in identifying a potentially hazardous situation a
plant
29. Risk Benefit Analysis
• It is technique, used to analyze the risk in
project and to determine whether the project
should be carried out or not.
• It answers the following questions
– What are the benefits of product/project?
– Is the project is worth for the risk?
– Do benefits balance the risk?
• Everyone is ready to accept certain level of
risks.
30. Conceptual difficulties in Risk-Benefit Analysis
• Both risks and benefits very difficult to
calculate because lie in future (uncertainties)
• Ensure who takes risk are to be enjoy benefit
• It is difficult to express both risk and benefits
is a common set of units.
31. Ethical implications on Risk- Benefit Analysis
• While performing Risk –benefit analysis, one should keep in
mind the following ethical questions:
– Under what condition, someone in society is entitled to impose a risk
in someone else on behalf of supposed benefit to others?
– How can we consider the worst case scenarios of persons exposed to
maximum risks while they are obtaining only minimum benefits?
– Are their rights violated?
– Are they provided safer alternatives?
32. Personal Risk
• If sufficient information is given to a person, he
can able to decide whether to participate in a
risky activity or not.
• Many experiments concluded- individuals are
willing to face voluntary risks than involuntary
risks
• They are difficult to assess
• Examples:
– A person living near chemical plant
– A Person working in nuclear plant
33. Assessing personal risk
• Answer following ethical questions
– How to access the money value of an individuals
life?
– On what basis, the compensation for a risk can be
decided?
– Is the compensation is justifiable?
– What will be the compensation if the tolerance
level is above the tolerance level?
35. Public Risk and public acceptance
• Public Risk can be easily determine than personal
Risk
• Assessment studies related to technological safety
can be conducted for public risk
• According to National Highways Traffic safety
Administration(NHTSA) has emphasized following
two points
– A value of human life can be estimated based on loss of
future income and other costs associated with an accident
– A estimate of quantifiable losses in social welfare is not
based on maximum expenditure allocated to save a life
36. Accounting publicly for Benefits and
Risks
• Public accountability for risk has been affected by the
following problems
– An expert or even group of experts cant be expected to
know everything
– The uncertainties produced by scientist and regulators*
also infects the risk regulation
– Since the origins of risk vary depending on how the facts
are presented, therefore special cause should be given
when starting probabilities if rare events
– (*regulator- who assure the public that there are no risk,
but they know that the answer are not at hand)
37. Becoming responsible engineers regarding risks
• Engineer can provide background material to prove the faulty
positions
• Engineers should actively participate in debates related to safety
and risks
• Engineers should always insist on meaningful numbers and figures
when assessing safety and risk
• Engineers should also recognize previously mentioned difficulties
with measuring risk and benefits
• Engineers should not be influenced by any influential lobby or trade
organization
• Engineers need to sensitive to various quantitative value judgement
related with human and ethical values
• Engineers should be aware at the legal liabilities regarding risk.
38. Reducing Risk
• It is impossible to design and manufacture anything to be
completely risk free
• Engineers responsibility to explore all the possible ways
to reduce the risk under the given financial and time
constraint
• Risk Management: Eradication or minimization of the
adverse effects of the pure risks to which an organization
is exposed
• Elements of Risk management Programme:
– Risk identification
– Risk Evaluation( Risk measurement)
– Risk Control
39. Elements of Risk Management
• Risk Identification
– Risk can be identified by various techniques such as physical
inspection, safety audit, job-safety analysis, management and
worker discussions,& historical data analysis
• Risk Evaluation
– Risk can be evaluated on the basis of economic, social or legal
considerations
– Economic and social considerations include financial aspects,
uninsured cost of accidents, insurance premium, overall effect of
profitability, possible loss of production
– Legal considerations include possible health and safety law, code of
practice, guidance notes & accepted standards, fire prevention,
pollution and product liability
40. Elements of Risk Management
Risk Control
– Risk control consists of 4 areas
1. Risk Avoidance
– It refers to the conscious decision by the management to avoid
completely a particular risk by discontinuing the operation producing
risk
2. Risk retention
– Retaining a particular risk for which any consequent loss is financed
by organization
3. Risk transfer
– Legal assignment of cost of certain potential losses from one party to
another (insurance)
4. Risk reduction
– Reduction or elimination of all aspect of accidental loss lead to
wastage of an organizations assets.
41. Three approaches to acceptable risk
• The Experts Approach
• The Layperson’s Approach
• The Government Regulator’s Approach
42. Experts Approach to Acceptable Risk
• Identifying risk:
• Utilitarianism and acceptable risk
• Risk as maximizing benefit
43. Identifying risk
• concept of risk involves adverse effect or harm.
Harm is a limitation of a persons freedom or well
being. (physical well being, psychological well being,
economical well being)
• Risk can be defined as: “a compound measure of the
probability and magnitude of adverse effect”
(William W. Lowrance)
• We can add : “probability of death or injury”
44. Utilitarianism and Acceptable risk
• The experts approach to risk is usually utilitarian. That
the answer to any moral question is to be found by
determining the course of action that maximizes well
being.
• Cost/benefit technique is often called risk/benefit
analysis. Cost is measured in terms of risk of deaths,
injuries, or other harms associated with a given course
of action.
45. Risk as maximizing benefit
• An acceptable risk is one of where , given the options available,
the risk of harm is at least equaled by the probability of producing
benefit.
Limitations: (that will yield the cost/benefit approach
inconclusive)
• It might not be possible to anticipate all of the costs and benefits
associated with each option
• It is not always possible to translate all of the risks and benefits
into monetary terms. What is the monetary value of human life?
• The method makes no allowances for the distributions of costs and
benefits.
• The method gives no place for informed consent to the risk
imposed by technology.
46. Three approaches to acceptable risk
• Risk Expert: wants to balance risk and benefit in a way
that optimizes overall public well-being.
• Layperson: wants to protect himself or herself from risk.
• The government regulator: wants as much assurance as
possible that the public is not being exposed to unexpected
harm.
47. Becoming a Responsible Engineer Regarding Risk
Includes to be aware
• that risk is often difficult to estimate
• that there are different approaches to the
determination of acceptable risk
• of the legal liabilities regarding risk.
48. Bhopal Gas Tragedy
• On December 3, 1984, Union Carbide's pesticide-
manufacturing plant in Bhopal, India leaked 40 tons
of the deadly gas, methyl isocyanate into a sleeping,
impoverished community - killing 2,500 within a few
days, 10000 permanently disabled and injuring
100,000 people. Ten years later, it increased to 4000
to 7000 deaths and injuries to 600,000.
49. Risks taken:
• Storage tank of Methyl Isocyanate gas was filled to
more than 75% capacity as against Union Carbide‟s
spec. that it should never be more than 60% full.
• The company‟s West Virginia plant was controlling
the safety systems and detected leakages thro‟
computers but the Bhopal plant only used manual
labour for control and leak detection.
• The Methyl Isocyanate gas, being highly
concentrated, burns parts of body with which it
comes into contact, even blinding eyes and destroying
lungs.
50. Causal Factors:
• Three protective systems out of service
• Plant was understaffed due to costs.
• Very high inventory of MIC, an extremely toxic
material.
• The accident occurred in the early morning.
• Most of the people killed lived in a shanty (poorly
built) town located very close to the plant fence.
51. Responsibilities of Engineers
Internal Responsibilities:
Responsibilities of an engineer towards an employer, that the Responsibilities
within an organization
External Responsibilities :
Responsibilities of an engineer towards outside world, that the Responsibilities
outside organization
52. Collegiality
• It is the tendency to support and cooperate with
the colleagues
• According to NSPE , the collegiality should include
following characteristics
1. Engineers should not attempt to injure, unkindly or
falsely directly or indirectly, the professional
reputation, prospects, practice or employment of
other engineers
2. Engineers should not untruthfully criticize other
engineer’s work.
3. Engineers should bring unethical or illegal practice of
other engineers to the proper authority for action
53. Elements of Collegiality
• Respect:
– In general Means valuing one’s colleague for their
professional skill and their devotion to the social
goods promoted by the profession
– For engineering : It means affirming the worth of
other engineers engaged in producing socially useful
and safe products
– Collegial respect Vs Friendship:
• Collegial respect is Reciprocal like friendship
• But not necessarily develops personal affection like
friendship
54. Elements of Collegiality
• Commitment:
– Sharing devotion to the moral ideals essential in
the practice of engineering
– Even when there is cut-throat competition b/w
engineers, there should be a feeling that all
engineers share a concern for overall good to the
society
55. Elements of Collegiality
• Connectedness:
– Awareness of being part of a cooperative
undertaking created by sharing commitments and
skill
– It means the sense of utility among engineers that
includes cooperation and mutual support
56. Negative aspects of collegiality
• Collegiality may be misused and distorted.
– Ex: colleagues appeal to be silent about corporate
corruption
• It may degenerate more group of self-interest,
rather than shared devotion to the public
• Because of heavy competitions among
engineers, collegiality may focus on the
corporate goal of maximizing profit at the
expense of public good
57. Loyalty
• The quality of being true and faithful in one’s
support
• It is more a function of attitudes, emotions
and a sense of identity
• Senses of loyalty
– Agency Loyalty
– Identification Loyalty
58. Agency Loyalty
• It is fulfill one’s prescribed duties to an employer
• The contractual duties may include particular task for which
one is paid, general activities of cooperating with colleagues,
and following lawful authority with the organization
• It concerns with the matter of actions, whatever it motives. It
is motivated by identification with the group to which one is
loyal.
• Example:
– People may not like the job they do hate their employer, but still they
would perform their duty as long as they are employees. This sense of
loyalty is agency loyalty
59. Identification loyalty
• It is much concerned with attitudes, emotions,
and a sense of personal identity as it does with
action
• Employee should meet his moral duties to the
organization willingly with personal attachment
and affirmation.
• Some of the duties of loyal employees are,
– To avoid conflicts of interest
– To protect confidential information
– To be honest in making estimates
– To admit one’s error
60. Is loyalty obligatory(responsibility)
• Agency loyalty to employers is an obligation within
proper limits
• According to john H.Fielder, identification of loyalty is
obligatory, only when the two conditions are meet.
– Employees must be treated fairly, they should be given
their share of benefits and burdens
– Employees must see that their goals are achieved by and
through a group in which they participate
– Identification loyalty is reciprocal in nature. That is
employees can be expected to be loyal to employers only
when employers show strong commitments to them
61. Professionalism and Loyalty
• Acting on professional commitments to the
public is more effective to serve a company
than just following company orders.
• Loyalty to employers may not mean obeying
one’s immediate supervisor.
• Professional obligations to both an employer
and to the public might strengthen rather than
contradict each other.
62. Respect for Authority
• It is right to make decisions, the right to direct the
work, and the right to give orders.
• It is crucial factor in organization, since engineers and
employees must be authorized to carryout the jobs
assigned to them.
• Authority can be defined as the legal right to
command action by others to enforce compliance
• Clear lines of authority identifies areas of personal
responsibility and accountability.
63. Collective bargaining.
• International Labor Organization (ILO) define it
as : Negotiation about working conditions and
terms of employment between employer and
one or more representative employee’s with a
view to reaching the agreement
• The term bargaining refers to evolving
agreement using methods like negotiation,
discussion, exchange of facts and ideas rather
than confrontation.
64. Process of collective bargaining
• Presenting character of demands by the union
on behalf of constituent elements
• Compromise at bargaining table
• Reaching the agreement
65. External Responsibilities
• Responsibilities of an engineer towards
outside world, that the Responsibilities
outside organization
• It include
– Confidentiality
– Conflict of interest
– Occupational crimes
66. Types Of Crime
Domestic crime
Non-accidental crime committed by members of the family
Professional Crime
When crime is pursued as a profession or day to day occupation
Blue collar crime (or) Street crime
Crime against person, property (theft, assault on a person, rape)
Victimless crime
Person who commits the crime is the victim of the crime. E.g. Drug
addiction
Hate crime
Crime done on the banner of religion,
community, linguistics
67. Occupational crimes
Occupational crimes are illegal acts made possible through one’s
lawful employment.
It is the secretive violation of laws regulating work activities.
When committed by office workers or professionals, occupational
crime is called “white collar crime “
Most of occupational crimes are special instances of conflicts of
interests.
These crimes are motivated by personal greed, corporate ambition,
misguided company loyalty
Examples:
– Price Fixing
– Endangering lives
– Industrial espionage
68. Occupational crime of price fixing
• While fixing price for any product or service
sometimes all competitors come together and
jointly set up the price to be charged. These
are called pricing cartels.
• This is unfair and unethical practice
• Example: 1983, Washington power bids
• Laws are enforced which forbids companies
from jointly fixing
69. Endangering lives
• Some companies employ workers without
disclosing them harmful health effects and
safety hazards about the working environment
• This is kind of occupational crimes
70. Industrial Espionage(spying)
• Industrial spying
• Espionage refers secret gathering of information in
order to influence relationships between two entities
• The vital information's are secretly gatherd through
espionage agents for economic gains
71. Conflicts of Interest
• In general conflicts of interest means individuals as
two or more desires that all interests cannot be
satisfied given circumstance.
• Professional conflicts of interest are situations where
professionals have an interest, if pursued , could
keep from meeting one of their obligations to their
employers
• Example:
• Employee working in a company serving as a
consultant for a competitor’s company
72. Types of conflicts of interest
• Actual conflicts of interests
• Potential conflicts of interests
• Apparent conflicts of interests
73. Confidentiality or confidential information
• Information considered desirable to be kept secret.
• Any information that the employer or client would like to have
kept secret in order to compete effectively against business
rivals.
• This information includes how business is run, its products,
and suppliers, which directly affects the ability of the
company to compete in the market place
74. Privileged information:
• Information available only on the basis of special privilege‟
such as granted to an employee working on a special
assignment.
Proprietary information:
• Information that a company owns or is the proprietor of.
• This is primarily used in legal sense.
• Also called Trade Secret. A trade secret can be virtually any
type of information that has not become public and which an
employer has taken steps to keep secret.
75. Patents
• Differ from trade secrets.
• Legally protect specific products from being manufactured and
sold by competitors without the express permission of the
patent holder.
• They have the drawback of being public and competitors may
easily work around them by creating alternate designs
76. Obligation of Confidentiality
Based on ordinary moral considerations:
I. Respect for autonomy:
• Recognizing the legitimate control over private information
(individuals or corporations).
• This control is required to maintain their privacy and protect
their self-interest.
77. Respect for Promise
• Respecting promises in terms of employment contracts not to
divulge certain information considered sensitive by the
employer
Regard for public well being
• Only when there is a confidence that the physician will not
reveal information, the patient will have the trust to confide in
him.
• Similarly only when companies maintain some degree of
confidentiality concerning their products, the benefits of
competitiveness within a free market are promoted.
78. Conflict of Interest
Conflict of Interest arises when two conditions are met
• The professional is in a relationship or a role that requires
exercising good judgment on behalf of the interests of an
employer or client and
• The professional has some additional or side interest that could
threaten good judgment in serving the interests of the
employee or client. E.g. When an engineer is paid based on a
percentage of the cost of the design and there is no incentive
for him to cut costs- The distrust caused by this situation
compromises the engineer’s ability to cut costs and calls into
question his judgment.
79. Conflict of Interest created by Interest in
other companies
• When one works actually for the competitor or subcontractor
as an employee or consultant.
• Having partial ownership or substantial stock holdings in the
competitor’s business.
• It may not arise by merely having a spouse working for sub-
contractor to one’s company, but it will arise if one’s job also
includes granting contracts to that subcontractor
80. Conflicts of Interest created by Insider
information
• Using inside information to set-up a business
opportunity for oneself or family or friends.
• Buying stock in the company for which one works is
not objectionable but it should be based on the same
information available to the public.
81. Avoiding Conflicts Of Interests
• Taking guidance from Company Policy
• In the absence of such a policy taking a second
opinion from a coworker or manager. This gives an
impression that there no intension on the part of the
engineer to hide anything
82. People Committing Occupational Crimes
• Usually have high standard of education
• From a non-criminal family background
• Middle class male around 27 years of age (70% of
the time) with no previous history
• No involvement in drug or alcohol abuse
• Those who had troublesome life experience in the
childhood (Blum)
83. Rights of Engineers
• Types of Rights
– Human Rights
– Employee Rights
• Contractual Rights
• Non-Contractual Rights
– Professional Rights
84. Human Rights
• Rights possessed by virtue of being people or moral agents
• Rights to Life , Liberty
• Rights to security of person
• Rights not to be held in slavery
• Rights not to be tortured
• Rights to recognition before law
• Rights to impartial trial and protection from arbitrary arrest
• Rights to freedom of movement
• Rights to marriage
• Rights not to marry without free consent
• Rights to property ownership
• Rights to freedom of thought
• Rights to peaceful assembly and participation in government
• Rights to social security & work
• Rights to education
• Rights to participate in trade union
• Rights to minimal standard of living
85. Employee Rights
• Rights that apply or refer to the status or position of employee
• Types:
• Contractual Rights
• Non-Contractual Rights
• Contractual Rights
– Rights that are institutional rights that arise due to specific agreement in
employment contract
– Ex: right to receive salary, right to receive other benefit like bonus,
increment etc.,
• Non-Contractual Rights
– Rights existing if not formally recognized in the specific contracts or
company policies
– Ex: Right to choose outside activities, Right to privacy and
employer confidentiality
86. Professional rights
• Rights possessed by virtue of being professionals having
special responsibilities
• Example:
– The right to form and express one’s professional judgment freely
– The right to refuse to carry out illegal and unethical activity
– The right to talk publicly about one’s work within bounds set by
confidentiality obligation
– The right to engage in the activities of professional societies
– The right to protect the clients and the public from the dangers
that might arise from one’s work
– The right to professional recognition of one’s services.
87. Right of Professional Conscience
• There is one basic and generic professional right
of engineers, the moral right to exercise
responsible professional judgment in pursuing
professional responsibilities.
• Pursuing these responsibilities involves exercising
both technical judgment and reasoned moral
convictions.
• Two important specific rights are:
– Right of Conscientious Refusal
– Right of recognitation
88. Right of Conscientious Refusal
• The right of Conscientious refusal is the right to
refuse to engage in unethical behavior and to
refuse to do so solely because one views it as
unethical
• Arises under 2 situations
– Where there is widely shared agreement in profession
as to whether an act is unethical
– Here, professionals have a moral right to refuse to
participate in such activities.
– Where there is room for disagreement among
reasonable people over whether an act is unethical.
89. Right to Recognition
• Extrinsic reward
– Cash bonus
– Increased Salary
• Intrinsic Reward
– Appreciation letter, certificates
90. Professional Rights & Ethical Theories
Rights Ethics
• Right Ethics Emphasizes that all should have human moral rights, and any
action that violates these rights is unethical.
• The most basic human right, which needs no justification, as per A.I.Meldon, is
to pursue one’s legitimate (those that do not violate others rights) interests.
• The right to pursue legitimate interests gives a person right to pursue
professional moral obligations.
• o This may be viewed as a human right of conscience directly derived from the
basic human right.
Duty Ethics
• Perform duties without consider much more about moral rights
• I have a right to something only because others have duties or obligations to
allow me (and not interfere) to do so.
• If we derive the meaning of „others‟ as employers, then the basic professional
right is justified by reference to others‟ duties to support or not interfere with
the work related exercise of conscience by professionals.
91. Utilitarianism:
• Public good can be served by allowing professionals
to meet their responsibilities to the public.
• These responsibilities arise due to the professional’s
role in promoting public good.
92. Employee Rights
Employee rights are any rights, moral or legal, that
involve the status of being an employee. Employee
rights are:
• There should be no discrimination against an
employee for criticizing ethical, moral or legal
policies and practices of the organization.
• The organization will not also discriminate against an
employee for engaging in outside activities or for
objecting to an organization directive that violates
common norms of morality.
93. • Rights to outside activities
• Right to privacy
• Rights to due process
94. Discrimination
• Unequal treatment of individual intentionally or
unintentionally
• Discrimination generally means preference on the
grounds of sex, race, skin color, age or religious outlook.
• In everyday speech, it has come to mean morally
unjustified treatment of people on arbitrary or
irrelevant grounds.
• Therefore to call something Discrimination is to condemn
it.
• But when the question of justification arises, we will call
it Preferential Treatment
– Weak Preferential Treatment
– Strong Preferential Treatment
95. Intellectual Property Rights
Intellectual Property is a product of the human intellect
that has commercial value
• Many of the rights of the ownership common to real
and personal property are also common to Intellectual
Property
• Intellectual Property can be bought, sold, and
licensed
• Similarly it can be protected against theft and
infringement by others
96. Patent, Design & Trademark together with
Copyright form TOTAL INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY
Patent
• Derived from the Latin word „LITTERAE
PATENTES‟ which means „Open Letters‟ or „Open
Documents‟ to confer rights and privileges.
• A contract between an Inventor and the Government
97. TRADE MARK
• Trade Mark is a name or symbol adopted for
identifying goods
• Public can identify from the Trade Mark from
whom the product is emanating
• Trade Marks protection is given for an
industrial product by the Government.
98. COPY RIGHTS
The right to original literary and artistic works
• Literary, written material
• Dramatic, musical or artistic works
• Films and audio-visual materials
• Sound recordings
• Computer Programmes/software
99. Need For A Patent System
• Encourages an inventor to disclose his invention
• Encourages R & D activities as the industries can make
use of the technology, & avoids redundant research
• Provides reasonable assurance for commercialization.
• Provides an inducement to invest capital in the new lines
of production and thus , help for technical development
and up gradation.
• One may get a very good return of income through
Patent Right on the investment made in R & D.
100. Effect of Patent
• A patentee gets the exclusive monopoly right
against the public at large to use, sell or
manufacture his patented device.
• A patentee can enforce his monopoly right
against any infringement in the court of law
for suitable damages or profit of account.
