This document discusses various topics related to safety, responsibilities, and rights in the workplace. It begins by defining safety and risk, and explaining concepts like risk assessment, risk-benefit analysis, and reducing risk. It also discusses responsibilities like respecting authority, engaging in collective bargaining, and maintaining confidentiality to avoid conflicts of interest. The document then covers rights in the workplace, including occupational health and safety rights, employee rights, and professional rights and ethics for engineers.

1. Safety,
Responsibilities and
Rights
Unit-4

2. UNIT IV -SAFETY, RESPONSIBILITIES AND
RIGHTS
O 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 and its concepts
 Safety means the state of being safe. Safe means
protected from danger and harm.
 The term ‘safety’ is always difficult to describe
completely. What may be safe for one person may not
safe for another person.
 Absolute safety that satisfies all individuals or group
under all conditions is neither attainable nor
affordable.

4. Safety defined:
Initial version of William W.Lowrence’s definition
for safety is as follows:
“ A thing is safe if its risks are judged to be
acceptable”
It means, a thing is safe for a person if the
perceived risk is less. Similarly a thing is unsafe if the
perceived risk is high.

5. Drawbacks of the Lowrence’s
initial version of Definition
O Under-estimation of risks
ex: Buying improperly designed coil type of water
heater.
O Over-estimation of risks
ex: Adding chlorine in drinking water.
O No estimation of risks
ex: Purchasing a LPG gasoline fuel driven car
without judging anything about its safety.

6. Risk
O A risk is the potential that something unwanted and
harmful may occur.
O The American Heritage Dictionary defines risk as the
possibility of suffering harm or loss.
Effects of risk: it includes dangers of bodily harm, economic
loss, and environmental degradation.
Causes of risk: Risks or harms are caused by delayed job
completion, faulty products or systems, and economically or
environmentally injurious solutions to technological
problems.

7. Natural Hazards and Disaster
O Natural hazards such as floods, earthquakes,
droughts, volcanoes etc. greatly threatens and
damages the long lifelines of human
populations.
O A disaster is a serious disruptive event coincides
with a state of insufficient preparation.

8. Factors influencing Risk
O Voluntary risk Vs Involuntary Risk
O Short-term Vs Long-term consequences
(illness)
O Delayed Vs immediate risk (harm)
O Expected probability
O Reversible effects
O Threshold levels for risk: Something that is
risky only at fairly high exposures will seem
safer than something with a uniform exposure
to risk

9. Types of Accidents
O Procedural Accidents (bad choice)
O Engineered Accidents (errors in the design)
O Systemic Accidents (difficult to understand
and control)

10. Assessment of Safety and Risk
O It is always a great challenge to engineers to
balance quality and safety against cost.
O In general, engineer’s tendency is to design
and produce high-quality products, but
business managers tend to keep the cost down.
O Therefore it is necessary to understand the
relationship between safety, costs and price

11. Safety
Risk
High Low
High
High safety and high risk high
cost, high price
Examples: Nuclear plant,
aircraft, missiles
Low safety and
high risk, low cost,
high price
Examples:
Automobiles
Low
High safety and low risk high
cost, Medium price
Examples: Electrical products,
safety valves.
Low safety and low
risk, low cost and
low price
Examples:
Electronic goods,
computers.

12. Determination of Risk
1. Knowledge of Risk: To assess a risk, an engineer
must first identify it. To identify a risk, an engineer
must first know the information about the safety of
standard products.
2. Uncertainties in Design: while designing a product,
the design engineer must deal with many
uncertainties. Many of the risks can be expressed as
probabilities and as educated guesses.

13. 3. Testing for safety:
O Once the product is designed, both prototypes and
finished devices must be thoroughly tested.
O The testing is not just to determine whether the
product meets the specification. It should also
involve testing to see if the product is safe,.
O It is essential that in any engineering design, all safety
systems be tested to ensure that they work as
planned.

14. Different approaches for Testing
1. Scenario Analysis: this test starts from a given event, and
then studies the different consequences that might develop
from it.
2. Failure modes and Effects Analysis: This approach
systematically examines the failure modes of each
component without focusing on causes or relationships
among the elements of a complex system.
3. Fault-Free Analysis: This approach proposes a system
failure and then traces the events back to possible causes at
component level.
4. Event-Free Analysis: this is the reverse of the fault-free
analysis. This analysis is very useful in identifying a
potentially hazardous situation in the plant.

15. Risk Benefit Analysis
O Many large projects, especially public works are
undertaken based on risk-benefit analysis.
The following are the questions to be answered:
i. Is the product worth the risks connected with its
use?
ii. What are the benefits?
iii. Are benefits more than the risks and so on?
iv. Are we willing to take a risk as long as the
project gives sufficient benefit or gain?

16. Example:
When a dam is constructed across a river.
O Compared to those risks, benefits are more in the
long run water stored can be used for
irrigation, power production, drinking
purpose, fishing and industries.
O Since here, the benefits are more than risks, it
is worth taking up the dam project.
O When risk can be expressed and measured in
one set of units say deaths on highways and
benefits in another set of units, say speed of
travel, we can easily calculate the ration of risk to
benefits for different designs.

17. While calculating the risks, the rights of the
people should not be violated. If so, they
should be provided with safer
alternatives.

18. Reducing Risk
O It is impossible to design and manufacture
anything to be completely risk free.
O It is the responsibility of the engineers to explore
all the possible ways to reduce the risk under the
given financial and time constraints.
O Definition of Risk-Management: R.M may be
defined as minimization of the adverse(complex)
effects of the pure risks to which an organization .

19. 1. Risk identification: It can be identified by
various techniques such as physical
inspection, safety audit, job-safety
analysis, management and worker
discussions, and historical data
analysis.
2. Risk evaluation: measured on the basis
of economic, social or legal
considerations

20. 3. Risk control
Risk avoidance: it refers to the conscious decision
by the management to avoid completely a
particular risk by discontinuing the operation
producing the risk.
Risk retention: it refers to regurarly particular risk
for which any consequences loss is financed by
the organization.
Risk transfer: it refers to the legal assignment of the
cost of certain potential losses from one party to
another. ( e.g: insurance)
Risk reduction: it refers to the reduction or
elimination of all aspect of accidents loss that
lead to a wastage of an organization’ assets.

21. ORESPONSIBILITIES OF
ENGINEERS

22. Collegiality
O Collegiality is the relationship between
colleagues.
OColleagues are those explicitly united in a
common purpose and respecting each
other's abilities to work toward that
purpose.
O A colleague is an associate in a profession in
office.
Othe word collegiality can cannot respect for
another's commitment they towards the
common purpose and ability to work
toward it.

23. ELEMENTS OF
COLLEGIALITY
O Respect (give respect for working collegues)
O Commitment (Sharing the moral ideas
towards work)
O Connectedness (Awareness of being a part
of undertaking)

24. Loyalty
“ The state or quality of being TRUE.
O It is more a function of attitudes, emotions
and sense of identity.
O TWO SENSE OF LOYALTY:
O Agency loyalty
O Identification loyalty

25. TWO SENSE OF LOYALTY:
O Agency loyalty:
OIt is to fulfill one’s contractual duties to an employer
(They not like job, they hate the employees but still
perform their duty as a employer)
O Identification loyalty:
OMuch concerned with attitudes, emotions and
sense of identity.( Employee should meet his
moral duties to the organization)

26. Respect for Authority
 Authority is the right to make a decisions, right
to give orders
SOURCES OF AUTHORITY
1. Institutional Authority
2. Expert Authority
3. Power Authority

27. 1. Institutional Authority
O It means the institutional right given to a person
to exercise the power based on the resources of
the institution.
O Institutional authority (or) the institutional right is
given to the individuals in order to meet their
institutional duties.
For example, the task of a manager are:
1. To allocate money or other resources
2. To make policy decisions; and
3. To supervise the project and issue directives
subordinates on particular jobs.

28. 2. Expert Authority
O It means the authority given to the individual best
qualified to serve their institution’s goals in a
given capacity.
O But in practice, there is not always a perfect match
between the authority granted and the
qualification needed to exercise it.
O Expert authority also means the possession of
special knowledge, skill or competence the
tasks and to give sound advice.

29. 3. Power Authority
O Institutional authority must be distinguished from
power authority.
O Institutional authority carries with it an allotment
of the resources needed to complete their task.
O Ineffective persons may not be able to assume the
power corresponding to their position and they will
be unable to implement anything.

30. Collective bargaining
O Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations
between employers and a group of employees
aimed at reaching agreements that regulate
working conditions. Eg: (UNION in industry)
O The interests of the employees are commonly
presented by representatives of a trade union to
which the employees belong.
O The collective agreements reached by these
negotiations usually set out wage scales, working
hours, training, health and safety, overtime,
grievance mechanisms, and rights to participate in
workplace or company affairs

31. PROCESS OF COLLECTIVE
BARGAINING
O STEP I : Demand by the union
O STEP II : Negotiations at the bargaining
table
O STEP iii: Reaching an aggrement
O UNION AND PROFESSIONALISM
O EXAMPLE: company union

32. ARGUMENTS OVER UNIONS
O TWO ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR OF AND
AGAINST UNIONS
1. ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR OF UNIONS
1. Standars of living
2. Job security
3. Resist un ethical act
2. ARGUMENTS AGAINST UNIONS
1. Remove persons to persons neogations
2. Union encourages unrest and strained relationship
to employees and employee

33. O Process of Collective Bargaining

34. EXTERNAL
RESPONSIBLITIES OF
ENGINEERS
Confidentiality
Conflicts of Interest
Occupational crimes

35. Confidentiality
O Keeping confidence or confidentiality is the
most important duty of any professional.
O Lawyers must keep clients’ information
confidential.
O Doctors must keep information about their patients
confidential.
O Teachers must keep personal information about
their students confidential.
O Employed engineers must keep information about
their companies and clients confidential

36. Definition- Confidentiality
O Confidential information is the information which is
desirable to keep secret in a government
department or a private company.
O Engineers and the employees are expected to keep
information “confidential”.
O They are expected not to leak out any confidential
information to unauthorized people both inside
and outside the company

37. Confidentiality related terms
1. “Privileged information ”(Assignment)
2. “Proprietary information” (Ownership)
3. Trade secrets
4. Patents
Privileged information: is a similar expression for
“confidential information”. Privileged information
means the information that will be available only
on the basis of special privileged.
O Special privilege means accorded to an
employee working on a special assignment.

38. Proprietary information:
“ Proprietary information” is an information
that a company owns. It is the information owned by
the proprietor in a legal sense. This means
“Property” or “ownership”.
Trade Secrets:
It can be any type of information that has not
become public and which an employer has taken
steps to keep secret.
Patents:
Patents legally protect specific products
from being manufactured and sold by competitors
without the permission of the patent holder.

39. Conflicts of Interest
O Conflicts of interest are the situations
where professionals have a self interest
to do this or that work. (confusion
among the work)
O If self interest is given importance, it may
keep them away from meeting their
obligations to their employers or clients

40. Examples:
O To serve as consultant for a
competitor’s company.
O Personal interest, such as making
private investments in a competitor’s
company.

41. TYPES OF CONFLICT OF
INTEREST
O ACTUAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST
O Mechanical engineer interested in automobile
O POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST
O It may corrupt potential judgement
O APPARENT CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
O Appreance conflict of interest

42. Occupational Crimes
O Occupational crimes are illegal activities in one’s
company or an organization.
O It is the violation of laws regulating the work
activities.
O When workers or professionals are committed,
occupational crime is called “White –Collar
Crime”

43. Types of Occupational crimes
1. Industrial Espionage (industrial spying)
2. Price fixing
3. Endangering Lives

44. Industrial Espionage
O It means betraying(spy) one’s own company to
other companies for his own benefits or gains.
O For example, the army secrets, of our own country
and atomic energy secret were once sold to Pakistan.

45. 2. Price Fixing
O Law prevents companies from fixing the price of a
product that will prevent free competition and trade, but
this sort of habit is often violated by many industries.

46. Endangering Lives
O Employers who expose their employees to
safety harazads escape criminal penalties, but
the victims will sue the companies for
compensation under civil law.
O Workers are prone(chances) to diseases like
heart diseases, lung diseases, eye problems
when they happen to work in chemical
industries.

47. RIGHTS OF ENGINEER
O A right is a valid claim to something and against
someone which is recognized by the principles of an
problem.
Types of Rights:
1. Human rights
2. Employee rights
(a) contractual rights
(b) Non-contractual rights
3. Professional rights

48. Human Rights
O The rights possessed by virtue of being people or
moral agents.
Fundamental human rights:
Right tlife, liberty, security of person, recognition
before the law, freedom of movement, marriage,
education, standard of living.o –

49. Employee rights
O The rights that apply or refer to the status or
position of employee.
Contractual rights:
These employee rights are institutional rights that
are arise only due to specific agreements in the
employment contact.
Non-contractual rights:
These are rights existing even if not formally
recognized in the specific contracts or company
policies.

50. Professional Rights
O Professional rights are the rights possessed by virtue of
being professionals having special moral responsiblities
O Engineers have fundamental rights to live and to pursue
their work in ethical ways.
O Ex: Right to refuse to involve in unethical activities.
O Right to warn the public about harms and dangers.

51. Engineers as professionals also have other
rights which are as follows:
1. The right to express one’s professional
judgment freely.
2. The right to refuse(disagree) to carry out illegal
and unethical activities.
3. The right to talk publicly about one’s work
within bounds.
4. The right to be involved in the activities of
professional bodies.
5. The right to protect clients and the public from
the dangers of one’s work
6. The right to professional recognition for one’s
services.

52. Various aspects of professional
rights
O The right of professional conscience
O Institutional recognition of rights
O Specific rights recognition
1. Conscientious refusal rights
Refuse is the right To engage in
unethical behavior
2. Recognition rights
 Extrinsic rewards( Increased salaries, cash bonous etc)
 Intrinsic rewards(Appreciation letters, certificates etc)

53. Foundation of Professional Rights
1. Rights Ethics
 all should have moral rights, and any action that
violates these rights is unethical.
2. Duty Ethics
 There are duties that should be performed,
without considering much about moral rights.
3. Utilitarinism
 The greatest good is promoted by allowing
engineers to practice their obligations

54. WHISTLE BLOWING
O It is alerting relevant persons to some moral
or legal corruption, where ‘relevant persons’
are those in a position to act in response, if only
by registering protest.
Ex: politicians to bring out their corruption by
publishing articles or informing regulatory
authorities.
PREVENTING WHISTLE BLOWING:
O Company should create strong ethics culture
O Organization should remove secret
communication

55. Employee Rights
O An employee is having the right to disobey
unethical directives and to express dissent
about company policies.
O Employee rights include fundamental human
rights related to their employment situations.
O Employees should not be discriminated against
one’s race, age or nationally.

56. A few important “Employee
Rights” are as follows
O No organization shall discriminate(thredening)
against an employee for criticizing.
O No organization discriminate against an employee
for being engaged in outside activities of his or her
choice.
O No organization shall deprive(taken) an employee
of the enjoyment of reasonable privacy in his or her
place of work.
O To due process means right to fair procedures
safeguarding/protecting the exercise to other
rights.

57. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
An idea, a design, a manuscript, an invention, or a
concept which will give rise to a useful
product/application, is known as an “Intellectual
Property”
O The problem with an intellectual property is that it can
be copied, imitated or reproduced.

58. Protection of Intellectual Property
Right
O Trade Secrets
O Patents
O Copyrights
O Industrial Designs
O Trademarks

59. Trade Secrets: When an individual or an
organization owns an intellectual property, does not
disclose the property to any one and keeps it as a
“secret” to safeguard his business interests, is
called “Trade Secret”.
Patent: The right granted by government to an
inventor to prevent others from imitating,
manufacturing, using or selling his invention for
commercial use during a specified period, is known
as “Patent” or Patent Right”

60. Copy right: the copy right is limited both in
time and extent. Copy right provides
protection for a specified period from
reproduction of materials either in full or in
part.

61. Discrimination
O The word discrimination means
preference given to an employees on the
grounds of race, nationality etc., whether
such preference is justified or not.
O Discrimination means morally unjustified
treatment of people, an arbitrary or
irrelevant ground.
O Discrimination also means “preferential
(unwanted or angry) treatment”

62. O Employees should not be discriminated
because of race, skin colour, age or religious
outlook.

63. The Case Study of the Chernobyl
Disaster
O The chernobyl accident in 1986 was the result of a
flawed reactor design that was operated with
inadequately trained personnel and without proper
regard for safety.
O The resulting steam explosion and fire released at
least five percent of the radioactive reactor core into
the atmosphere and downwind.
O Some 31 people were killed, and there have since
been around ten deaths from thyroid cancer
apparently due to the accident.

64. Reactor Diagram

65. The Damaged Chernobyl Unit 4
Reactor Building

66. O Some 5000 tonnes of boron, dolomite,
sand, clay and lead were dropped on to
the burning core by helicopter in an effort
to extinguish the blaze and limit the
release of radioactive particles.

67. Environmental and Health Effects