UNIT IV

SAFETY, RESPONSIBILITIES AND RIGHTS

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
 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
 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
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.,
 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
 4.3 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
 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
 4.4 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.
 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
Risk - Definition
 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”
 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)
 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
 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
 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
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
 4.5 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
 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
 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
 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
 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
 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
 4.6 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
 4.7 Risk-Benefit Value Function
• The risk and benefits are based on probable gain and
probable loss
 4.8 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
4.9 Assessment of Safety & Risk
 Assessment of Safety & Risk
• Primary Cost:
– Production cost & Cost of Safety
• Secondary Cost
– Cost associated with warranty expense, lost of
customer good will
 4.10 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
 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
 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
 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
 4.11 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
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.
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?
 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
 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?
Minimize the difficulties in personal risk

• Life insurance
• Increased wages
 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
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)
 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.
 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
 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
 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.
 Three approaches to acceptable risk

• The Experts Approach

• The Layperson’s Approach
• The Government Regulator’s Approach
 Experts Approach to Acceptable Risk

• Identifying risk:
• Utilitarianism and acceptable risk
• Risk as maximizing benefit
 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”
 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.
* Utilitarian - Practical
 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.
The Laypersons Approach to Acceptable Risk
• Expert and Layperson
Public is sometimes mistaken in estimating the probability
of death and injury from various activities of technology.
Experts and lay person understand risk differently.
• Informed consent and justice: lay person approach follows
more closely the ethics of respect of persons than
utilitarianism.
 Free and informed consent and compensation
Three necessities to give free and informed consent
to the risks imposed by technology:
• A person must not be forced
• A person must have the relative information
• A person must be rational and competent enough
to evaluate the information.
 Lay criterion of acceptable risk:

An acceptable risk is one in which risk is freely

assumed by free and informed consent, or properly
compensated, and which is justly distributed.
 The Government Regulator’s Approach to
Risk

• An acceptable risk is one in which protecting the

public from harm has been weighted more heavily
than benefiting the public.
 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.
 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.
 (A more general) Principle of Acceptable Risk

• People should be protected from the harmful effects of

technology, especially when the harms are not consented to or
when they are unjustly distributed, accept that this protection
must sometimes be balanced against (1) the need to preserve
great and irreplaceable benefits and (2) the limitations on our
ability to obtain informed consent.
 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.
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.
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.
 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
 RESPECT FOR AUTHORITY
• Engineers working for companies have obligations to
respect the legitimate authority of their employers, in
order to fulfill the organizational aims
• Authority provides a way for identifying the areas of
personal responsibility and accountability
INSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY
• It refers to the authority within the organization
• It is the right of employers to exercise their power on
employees and to force them to achieve their
institutional goals
• It is the right given to a person to exercise power
which is based on the resources of the institution
• When the authority is given to the qualified
individuals by the organizations the goals can be
achieved easily
Contd…
• Institutional authority helps the managers to carryout the
tasks like

– Allocating resources properly

– Making policy decisions
– Giving recommendations
– Looking after project
– Issues orders to subordinates
If this authority is given to an ineffective persons, they will be
unable to exercise that authority due to lack of power to inspire
and encourage the employees
Contd…

• Institutional authority may acquire greater power to

motivate the employees
• The engineers may have the institutional duty to obey
the employer to do morally unjustified things
 EXPERT AUTHORITY
• It is the possession of special knowledge, skills to
perform a given job in a better way or to give
beneficial advice regarding a job
• It is known as ‘authority of leadership’- the power to
direct others in an effective manner
• In companies expert authority is given to staff
engineers, advisers, while institutional authority is
given to the line managers
 EXAMPLES
• Doctors are the authorities on health
• Computer professionals are the authorities on
software and hardwares
 ACCEPTING AUTHORITY
• Employees acknowledge their employer’s authority
by accepting the guidance and obeying the
instructions given by the employer in their activities
• Whenever subordinates simply adjust their behaviour
as guided by the decision of a superior, without
analyzing the facts& advantages of that decision
• An engineer should not forget his obligation to
protect the public health, safety and welfare. It is
more important than respecting the employer’s
institutional authority
 COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
• The ethical features of professionalism are not consistent
with union ideology and practice
• It is impossible for engineers to be dedicated to the ethical
standards and loyal to their employers when they are being
members of an union
• Unionism and professionalism are said to be conflicting with
each other
• Professionalism considers the interest of the society and of
the employer
• Unions are acting as the bargaining agents for improving the
economic interests of members against their employers
 Contd…
• When it exists, loyalty to employers and the public is
not possible
• The National Society for Professional Engineers have
given their codes of ethics that engineers should not
participate in strikes and other collective forcing
actions against their employers
• Engineers think that the unions are limited institutions,
which perform only certain limited functions
• Size of the union depends on how well it does its
functions
 Contd…
• The professional societies like NSPE, ISTE also
oppose unionism due to the thought of it as
unprofessional
• The good and bad consequences of collective
bargaining is only based on the given situation
• In most cases, unions have misused their power and
act with public in irresponsible manner
ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR OF UNIONS

• It plays a predominant role in creating healthy salaries and in

promoting high standard of living for the workers
• Helps in creating a greater sense of participation among
employees in the affairs of company such as decision making
• It gives job security and protection against random treatment
to the employees
• It also resist the order to perform unethical acts
• It provides good grievance procedure for the complaints of
employees, so that stability can be maintained
• It helps to avoid political interference
 ARGUMENTS AGAINST UNIONS
• It is the main cause for inflationary condition of a
country
• It may cause great destruction to the economy of a
nation
• It encourages opponent decision-making rather than
co-operating decision-making
• Removes individual negotiation between employer
and employees & makes employees as a part of
collective bargaining group
 ARGUMENTS AGAINST UNIONS
• It promotes disqualified workers and discourage
initiative among the workers by stressing job security
and by making promotion on the basis of seniority
• It prevents the management from rewarding
individuals according to their personal achievements
• Unions create a dissatisfied and a tensioned
relationship between the workers and the
management
 CONFIDENTIALITY
• The characteristic of professionals for keeping certain
information of the client’s secret confidentially
 EXAMPLES
• In Medicine, where the patient’s medical information
must be kept confidential
• In Law, the defense attorneys must keep client’s
information confidential
 CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION
• The information which is to be kept secret
• PRIVILEGED INFORMATION
– It is available on the basis of special privilege such as
privilege consistent with an employee who is working on a
special assignment
– It includes information that has not yet become to public or
known within organization
 PROPRIETARY INFORMATION
• This information is owned by a company
• It refers to a new knowledge established within the
organization that can be legally protected from use by
others
 TRADE SECRETS
• It is given with limited legal protection against
employee or contractor abuse
• It can be about designs, technical processes, plant
facilities, quality control methods, list of customers
 PATENTS
• Patents legally protect some specific products from
being manufactured and sold by other competitors
without any written permission of the patent holder
• No such protection exists in the case of trade secrets
• A patent holder has legally protected monopoly
power
• In case of trade secrets, the legal protection is limited
to keeping relationships of confidentiality and trust
 NEED FOR KEEPING ENGINEERING
INFORMATION CONFIDENTIAL
• If information about a product is leaked means
competitors may get that and they may capture the
market
 TYPES OF CONFIDENTIAL
INFORMATION
• OBVIOUS INFORMATION OF
CONFIDENTIALITY
– It refers to test data, information about the unreleased products, design
of products, formulae for products and technical process of the
products
• INFORMATION OF LESSER CONFIDENTIALITY
This includes all business information such as number of employees
working on a project, the identity of suppliers, marketing strategies,
production cost and production yields
 Contd…

• Most of the companies follow strict policies

regarding disclosure of business information and
make all employees to sign in them
• The engineers working for government in defence
industry, they have more strict requirements about
secrecy entrusted on them
 JUSTIFICATION AND LIMITS OF
CONFIDENTIALITY
• The confidentiality obligation can be divided into two
levels
• First level
– Respect for autonomy
– Respect for promises
– Regard for public well-being
• Second level
– It is to appeal to the major ethical theories
– Right based theories
– Duty based theories
– Utilitarian theories
 RESPECT FOR AUTHORITY

• To respect the autonomy freedom and self-

determination of individuals in order to identify their
control over the private information of themselves.
Without this control they cannot keep their privacy
and protect their self-interest
• The employer must have some control over the
private information about their companies
 RESPECT FOR PROMISES

• It refers to giving respect for promises between the

employer and the employees
• Employees should not disclose the promises which
are made with their employers
• The information may be considered sensible by the
employer
• Promises do not establish complete obligation
 RESPECT FOR PUBLIC OR SOCIAL
WELL-BEING
• For the sake of public benefits, the moral
considerations is essential in identifying confidentiality
relationships within professional circumstances
• Examples
– Patients may get confidence in doctors, if the
doctors do not reveal their private information
– The economic benefits of competitiveness within a
free market may be promoted only when the
companies can maintain confidentiality about their
products
 RIGHT BASED THEORIES

• Employers are having some moral and institutional

rights to take decision regarding what sort of
information about their companies can be released
publicly
• Justifies employees obligations of confidentiality by
appealing to basic human rights
 DUTY BASED ETHICS

• It stresses the basic duties of employers and

employees to upkeep the trust placed in them when
they have committed themselves to an agreement
• They should not abuse the property of others
 UTILITARIAN THEORIES

• It justifies the rule of confidentiality only when such

rules produce the most good for the general public
• They stress on how investors get profit and how the
society gets benefited
 GRAY AREAS IN THE CONTEXT OF
CONFIDENTIALITY
• The obligation of protecting the confidential information
does not cease when employees change their jobs
• The former employees will reveal information quickly to
their new employers. It must be legally maintained even
during a move to a new employer in the same technical
area, this is very difficult to practice
• Because even if, no specific data is revealed, the engineers
takes with him a great deal of already gained knowledge of
work, material to choose which he is not expected to forget
 GRAY AREAS IN THE CONTEXT OF
CONFIDENTIALITY
• The court evolved a balance between the competing
needs and rights of an individual and company as
follows:
• The employee is given the right to seek career
advancement wherever they choose
• The companies have a right to keep information away
from their competitors
The burden of ensuring that both these competing
interests are recognized and maintained lies only with
individual engineer
 MANAGEMENT POLICIES FOR
MAINTAINING CONFIDENTIALITY
• How to maintain the confidential information of former
employers, while the obligation is to faithfully serve the new
employers? There is no answer to these questions. The following
general management policies can be used.
• Use of employment contracts that place special restrictions on
future employment
• Put tight controls on the internal flow of information by
restricting access to trade secrets. It may create a feeling of
distrust in the work place
• Following oral agreements like not hiring the important
employees of other companies
The sense of professional responsibility has to be created
within the employees
 CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
• It occurs when the employees have an interest to
pursue
• It may prevent them from meeting their obligations to
serve the interest of their employers
• Employee working in a state department of
communications might have a financial interest while
bidding the basic materials from other companies
• In order to pursue his financial interest he may accept
the unqualified products
 TYPES OF CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

• Actual conflict of interest

• Potential conflict of interest

• Apparent conflict of interest

 ACTUAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST

• It is based on weaker judgment and service

• It refers to the loss of objectivity in decision making and
inability to faithfully discharge professional duties to
employer
• An engineer may have financial interest means he has to
judge for procurement of materials or any specific contract
• There are so many varieties of possible outside interests
• General test can be made to check whether there is any
possibility of an outside interest influencing a
professional’s judgement
 POTENTIAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

• It is based on difference between gifts and bribes

• Conflicts of interest threaten good judgment of an
employer for faithful service
• An engineer may become one of his company’s
supplier. He may not have the conflict of interest at
the initial stage. After some time in order to maintain
a friendship he may get into conflict of interest
• Accepting large gifts from suppliers
 BRIBE AND GIFT

• A bribe is a large amount of money or substantial

goods offered with the aim of gaining contract
• Bribes are ilegal and immoral
• Gift are not bribes, because they worth a small
amount of money given for the services rendered in
the normal conduct of business. This is not
objectionable
• KICKBACKS
– Prearranged payments made in exchange for contracts
actually granted are known as kickbacks.
 BRIBE AND GIFT

• A gift is a bribe if one can’t eat, drink or smoke it in a

day
• As per codes of ethics gifts should not be accepted
 APPARENT CONFLICT OF INTEREST

• It occurs when an engineer is paid based on a

percentage of the cost of design and there is no
incentive for him to cut costs.
• In this situation he will made a expensive design in
order to make a large commission for himself
• The distrust caused by this situation compromises the
engineer’s ability to do this and future work and leads
to a situation for questioning his judgement
 INTEREST IN OTHER COMPANIES

• It consists of having interest in the business of a

competitor or sub-contractor
• Example- working for sub-contractor may hold a
partial ownership or large stock holding in the business
of competitors
• Holding few shares will not have a conflict of interest
but when it increases produces the conflicts of interest
• It may also arises when an engineer leaves current
company and forms new company to compete with the
former company
 MOONLIGHTING

• It deals with a person who is working in two

companies
• It will break the rights to pursue a person’s self-
interest
• It will produce conflict of interest when he is working
for competitors, suppliers or even customers
• Moonlighting make one person exhausted and there
by affecting the job performance of that person
 INSIDE INFORMATION

• Making use of inside company information to make

an advantage or to start new business for oneself,
one’s family or one’s friends

• The use of company’s secrets by its employees to get

a personal benefit is always dangerous in the interest
of company
 AVOIDING CONFLICT OF INTEREST

• It must be avoided in a careful manner

– To follow the guidance from a company’s policy
– In the absence of such policy taking second opinion
from subordinate or co-worker
– In the absence of above two things, it is better to
examine one’s own motives and use ethical problem
solving techniques
– One can look into the statement of professional
codes of ethics which uniformly refuse to allow
conflicts of interest
 OCCUPATIONAL CRIME
• The illegal acts that are made possible through a
person’s lawful employment.
• It is the secret violation of laws
• When occupational crimes are carried out by office-
workers and professionals it is called as white-collar
crimes
• Most of the occupational crimes are the examples of
conflicts of interest
• These crimes are motivated by personal good,
corporate ambition,
 INDUSTRIAL ESPIONAGE
• It means industrial spying
• In northern california, one industrial area is famous
for computer industries
• These industries engage in the production of
microprocessor and computer chips
• This area has large industrial espionage
• The reason for that industrial espionage in that are are
 INDUSTRIAL ESPIONAGE
• The reason for that industrial espionage in that are are
• The development of computer chips is extremely competitive and
fast moving
• The products are often outdated within two years, due to the
introduction of new chips
• Profit or loss can be made in months, depending on development
and marketing of new products
• Manufacturing of computer chips is expensive one. Large savings
can be made by adopting reverse engineering. It can be adjusted
by breaking competitor’s device either mentally, physically or by
tests. The device then restructured to produce an identical device
at lower price due to low development cost.
 INDUSTRIAL ESPIONAGE
• Large savings can be made by acquiring the design
information of competitors by illegal ways
• By nature computer chips are very small. So they can be
easily taken away from the office by secret means. The
chances of being caught is also little
• The enforcement of law has been ineffective. Most of the
crimes are not taken to police
• Employees who are revealing secrets won’t be carrying out
such activities directly. There will be some agents who buy
the secrets of one company and sell them to other
competitors
 INDUSTRIAL ESPIONAGE
EXAMPLE
• Peter gopal, expert in seminconductor worked in
several companies before starting his own company
named national semiconductor corporations
• He made a vast number of contacts which enabled
him to buy and sell the secrets of competitors
• James worked for gobal on moonlighting basis in
addition to the regular job. Gopal lent a amount for
construction of james house
• He asked him to repay loan not in cash by with
documents stolen from NSC. James did this for gopal
 INDUSTRIAL ESPIONAGE
EXAMPLE
• Gopal sold NSC secrets to intel corporation
• He also stolen from intel to NSC
• Intel got a very tight security system. But he knows that most
of the manufacturing materials of intel were stored at intel
sub-contractor NBK which has no secuirities
• NBK uses chip recites and data tapes to store the materials. He
purchased that materials from NBK supervisor
• Due to this all companies in that area has got high employee
turnover rates
• NSC, police found that gopal has been a spy for more than ten
years
 PRICE FIXING

• The american governement passed the Shorman Antitrust act

in the year of 1980, to stop companies from jointly setting
prices. During that time price fixation is done by the
companies in a joint manner
• The famous violation case of the act had happened in two
electric companies named as Westing house, general electric.
• The top officials of these two companies have caught for
their involvement in price fixation without knowledge of
their proprietors
• All the companies were fined a large amount and the person
involved in that were sentenced to imprisonment
 PRICE FIXING

• They allocated bids on the privious market shares of

their companies.
• A company with 20% of the market share, would be
allowed to submit the lowest bid of 20% of the new
contracters. They would not be given new contracts
• The contracts were assigned on the basis of a rotating
plan which had a code as phase of the moon
• The persons involved in this game where highly
reputed high officials. Then what made them to do
this is
 PRICE FIXING

• Then what made them to do this is

• Many of them argued that their conduct is beneficial
• They also argued that fixation of price was benefit to
the public by stabilizing prizes
• It has been spread over to all industries for a long
period of time
 ENDANGERING LIVES

• Employers who expose their employees to safety

hazards usually escape from criminal penalties
• Victims may get the monetary compensation only
• The companies who are responsible for the death of
people can easily escape by paying compensation
• Example- in Asbestos industry, asbestos fiber cause a
lung disease and incurable cancer disease. In U.S.
during 1940-1979 it is found that more than 25 milion
workers have been affected by such diseases
• And more than 1,00,000 workers dead
 ENDANGERING LIVES

• The victims have filled suits against companies for

damages, seeking only monetary compensation and not
criminal justice
• A court agreement was made that the companies could
continue their operations by paying a large amount as
compensation over next 25 years. Thus they escaped from
the criminal case against the death of one lakh people and
also they were allowed to continue their business
• The reason is that the cases are filed only for monetary
compensation for settlement
 PROFESSIONAL RIGHTS
• Engineers have moral rights with their
responsibilities
• Human Rights: these should be possessed by
engineers in order to be a human.
• It includes the basic rights to pursue legitimate
personal interest, right to make a living
• Professional Rights: these are possessed by virtue of
being professionals having special responsiblities
 EXAMPLES
• The right to form and express professional judgment
without any obstacles
• The right to refuse to participate in unethical activities
• Right to warn the public about dangers
• Right to fair recognition and remuneration for
professional service
• Right to talk publicly about the job
• Right to engage in the activities of professional
societies
 BASIC RIGHTS OF PROFESSIONAL
CONSCIENCE
• It involves the right to exercise professional judgment
in discharging one’s duties and to exercise this
judgment in an ethical manner
• It is the right to do what everyone agrees is obligatory
for the professional engineer to do
• It is the negative right because it places an obligation
on other people not to interfere with its exercise.
• It may be a positive right as it is placing on other
people an obligation to do more than merely not
interfering
INSTITUTIONAL RECOGNITION RIGHTS

• It states the moral rights of engineers should be

respected by the employers and should also be given
institutional recognition by them
• It should be stated in formal way and should be given
official recognition
 SPECIFIC RIGHTS

• It states the importance and the difficulty of applying the

professional rights in some specific situations
• RIGHT OF CONSCIENTIOUS REFUSAL
– A kind of second-order to refuse to engage in unethical behaviour and
to refuse to do so solely because of the view that the person feels that it
is unethical
– It arises where there is a shared agreement in the profession whether an
act is unethical or there is a chance for disagreement among the people
if an act is unethical
– As per this right no employer can force an employee to do something
that is unethical
– The example of unethical activities are falsifying data, forging
documents, altering test results, lying, giving or taking bribes
 SPECIFIC RIGHTS

• RIGHT TO RECOGNITION
– Engineers have a right to prefessional recognition for their
work. It includes fair monetary renumeration and non
monetary renumeration
 FOUNDATIONS OF PROFESSIONAL
RIGHTS
II) RIGHT ETHICS
It states that the general public have human rights to
be warned of dangers to their safety due to
technological innovation
Public rights make a basis for recognizing the rights
of professional industry
 FOUNDATIONS OF PROFESSIONAL
RIGHTS
II) DUTY ETHICS
If a person has a right to do something, it is only
because others have duties to permit him to do so.
As per duty ethics, the employer have a duty not to
harm the public by placing barriers in the work of
engineers who try to meet their obligation to the
public
No employer has a right to threaten engineers with the
loss of jobs for refusing to work on projects which
cause damages to the public
 FOUNDATIONS OF PROFESSIONAL
RIGHTS
III) UTILITARIANISM
It says that the greatest good is promoted only by
promoting engineers to follow their obligations to the
public
Act utilitarianism
Rule utilitarianism
 EMPLOYEE RIGHTS

✔ Any rights, moral or legal which refer to the status of being

an employee.
✔ It includes
✔ Some professional Rights
✔ Right to disobey unethical instructions
✔ Right to express dissatisfaction on the company policies
✔ Contractual employee Rights
✔ The right to receive a salary of certain amount
✔ Right to receive periodic increments
✔ Non-Contractual employee Rights
✔ Choose outside activities
✔ Keep employer information confidential
✔ All human rights
 CHOICE OF OUTSIDE ACTIVITIES

✔ As per this right, all employees can engage in non-

work or outside activities of their own choice without
any compulsion from their employers
✔ There may be some violations in this right, because it
is not protected by law.
✔ The employer may scold heavily or threaten his
employee when he tries to engage in other activities
 CONTD…

✔ In order to protect public image the institution can put some

limits on the rights of employees to engage in outside activities.
They are
✔ When outside activities of employees lead to violating the
duties of their job, then the rights of employees to engage in
outside activities become limited. For example an employee
has a right to smoke, but not in work place which is supposed
to be pleasant place for others
✔ When outside activities of employees may cause conflicts of
interest. Stopping employees from moon lighting
✔ Employees have no right to damage their employer’s interest
outside the office hours
 PRIVACY

✔ Right to privacy of employees means the right to stop access to and use
of information about oneself. The employers should not interfere into the
private life of employees
✔ Examples will show how the functions of employers conflict with the
right of privacy of employees
✔ Before hiring an employee for post of cashier, the employer can ask
questions about their criminal records
✔ Before appointing a person in the sale department, the employer
should conduct personality test
✔ A supervisor can unlock and search the table of his subordinate
without his permission when he had doubt about his trust-worthiness
✔ In order to avoid theft an employer has a right to fix hidden camera
in the work place
 PRIVACY

✔ Some times the employer may misuse the employees private data
✔ Example- A company may stick tiny microphones on the ID cards
of employees without telling them.
✔ So that the employer can hear about what employees thougths are.
It will upset the employees and they may object the trick by the
employer. But if it is informed to the employees at the time of
recruitment then the employees will not object that in later
✔ An utilitarian principle says that this make unhappy workers
✔ Duty ethics argues that it may break the duty to respect employees
✔ Right ethics says that this information should not be given to
others. It should be only used for development of the company
 RIGHT TO DUE PROCESS

✔ It is the right procedures which helps to safeguard the exercise

of other rights. It has some procedures
✔ Written explanations for employees who have been
discharged. The reason for punishment should clearly
informed to them in written document
✔ An appeal procedure have to be established and made
available to all workers who thinks that their rights have
been violated
 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

• It is the information and original expression that derives its

original value from creative ideas with a commercial value
• It is an asset that can be bought or sold, licensed and exchanged
• It permits the people to have fully independent ownership for
their innovations and creativity like that for their own physical
property
• By providing such guard for innovations, the owners of Ips will
be motivated to do further innovations to benefit the society
• It may not be possible unless they have not been applied for and
sanction is obtained
• Many countries are having this IPR protection
 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

• Patents
• Plant varieties
• Undisclosed information
• Design of integrated circuits
• Industrial design
• Trade marks
• Copyrights
• Geographical indications
 ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
• Patents for inventions
• Copyrights for material
• Trademark for broad identity
• Trade secrets
– It is protected by national basis
 PATENTS

• It refers to innovations- new or improved product and

processes which are meant for industrial applications
• It is a territorital right which needs registration for a
limited time
• Patent is a contract between an inventer as individual
and the public as a whole
• The inventor has a specific right to prevent anybody
making use of his patented information. This is only
for certain period of time till he discloses the details to
others
 PATENTS

• Legal authority is World Trade Organisation (WTO)

• It provides the standard for duration of 20 years from
the date of filling. Once this period is over the people
can use the patent as they like.
• It is prevented by national laws
• The inventer itself has no right to make use or sell the
invention itself
 REQUIREMENTS FOR PATENTS

• While applying for patents certain documents have to

be submitted. Some of them are
– Problem of invention
– Current report of the problem to be addressed
– Solution or procedure to the problem
– Extent of novelty or inventive
– Application or uses
– Details of the inventor
– Resources of funds
 TYPES OF PATENTS

• Utility patents
• Design patents
• Plant patents
 UTILITY PATENTS

• It can be granted to anyone who invents any new and

useful process, machine, manufacture or compositon
of matter or any new improvement .
• Utility time is of 20 years
• Process means industrial manufacturing methods
• Manufacture refers to article manufactured
• Composition of matter relates to chemical
composition
 DESIGN PATENTS

• It protect the ornamental design of the article

• It has the term of 14 years
 PLANT PATENT

• It can be granted to anyone who reproduces the new

variety of plant
• It has the the term of 20 years
 COPY RIGHTS

• A very specific and exclusive right even for

reproduction of an original work.
• It can be applicable for material, literacy, music, film,
sound recording, broadcasting, software and
multimedia
• It provides protection for any original creation which
is not in need of registration but with limited time
• There is no need to seek lawyer’s help for settlement
 COPY RIGHTS

• Protection to copyright does not give any procedure, priciple

• Copy right is provided to prevent others from:
– Copying the work
– Publishing and selling copies commercially
– Renting or lending the work in open market
– Performing or demonstrating the work in public
 COPY RIGHTS

• The agreement says that the copy right period is for the tern of
life of inventor or author plus 50 years.
• The owners are having rights to permit others in making fair
use of their work
• Before providing copyright the test is to be conducted
– The originality of the work has to be checked
– The invention must have sufficient amount of creativity
– It should not be the copy of previous work
 TRADE MARKS

• It is for broad identity of specific goods and services

permitting differences to be made among different trades
• This is a territorial right, which needs registration, but without
any time limit.
• Registration of these marks has a definite time period. After
that it can be renewed
• The marks are in the form of certain wordings, which
differentiate one product from another one. This can be in the
form of logos, designs, sounds, symbols etc.
• The terms normally used for trade marks are generic,
descriptive and suggestive
Contd…

• The descriptive terms inform the purpose, functions or

physical characteristic and end use of products
• Suggestive marks do not at a glace describe the goods for
which the mark is used. It requires some imagination to arrive
at a conclusion about the nature of the goods
 TRADE SECRETS

• A trade secret is information, which is kept confidential as

secret
• It is not known in the relevent industry, providing an
advantage to its owner over other competitors.
• It is like ‘do it yourself’ form of protection
• For engineers, inventors, designers the trade secrets has to be
maintained secretly
• It may include some formulae, methods, programs, processes
or data collections
• If somebody is using the trade secret of others means that
person can claim for recover damages
 TRADE SECRETS

• It will not be registered but it must be kept confidential

• The theft of trade secrets is a crime. While using the trade
secrets of company engineers must be sure that they are not
leaking the secrets. If it is found that the engineers are leaking
information means that cannot be protected by law
 NEED FOR PROTECTION TO IPR

• The protection of IPR is important for economic policy of a

nation
• It can stimulate research, creativity and technological
innovations by giving freedom to individual inventor and
companies to gain the benefits of their creative efforts
• To prevent plagarism
• Prevent others using it
• Prevent using it for financial gain
• Fulfill obligation to funding agency
• Support income generation strategy
 IMPORTANCE OF IPR

• The intellectual property rights are granted to the inventors for

their freedom for further creation
• Give the inventors exclusive rights of dealing
• Permit avoiding of competitors and raise entry barriers
• Permit entry to a technical market
• Generate steady income by issuing license
DISCRIMINATION
 DISCRIMINATION
• It means to make an unfair difference in one’s
treatment of people
• It also means giving preference on the basis of sex,
race, religion etc.
• It is a kind of reverse preferential treatment.
• Reverse preferential treatment: it means one who
gives different treatments to equal standard of two
different groups.
 EXAMPLES
• In a large automobile company a vacancy arises for the post of
AGM. Generally the positions are filled from the existing seniors
within the company
• The members fond one suitable person who has lot of experience
and training in the company. Unfortunately the selected person
not belongs to the community of majority people of that company
• The management fears that if the person is given appointment
there may be less employee’s cooperation for smooth running of
the company.
• So the management decides to promote and transfer another
person who belongs to the same community of majority of the
workers
 EXAMPLES
• A company has appointed more number of women
engineers in its sales division. But their pay is not at
par with that of men
• Due to low economic activities, a company has to
face the problem of less sales. In order to overcome
that the management decided to send out some
engineers who are in the verge of retirement within
10 years
 ANTI DISCRIMINATION LAWS
• Discrimination against women has been avoided by
many laws such as
– Factories act
– Labor laws
– Acts relating to wages
In US many laws are available
The age discrimination in employment act has been
introduced to avoid age discrimination
 PREFERENTIAL TREATMENTS
• It means giving preference for the minorities and
women in employment opportunities
• Weak preferential treatment:
– It means giving preference to the members of traditionally
discriminated against the groups over qualified applicants who are the
member of other groups
Strong preferential treatment:
It involves giving preference to women and minority applicant over
better qualified applicants from other groups.
 ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF STRONG
PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT
• As per right ethics, preferential treatment stresses the
compensatory justice principle. i.e violation of rights
must be compensated
• Properties taken from others in the past must be
returned. The group of people who suffered from job
discrimination in the past must be given special
advantages in getting jobs today
• As per rule utilitarian principle, the economic and
social activites are important for woman and
minorites. It can be achieved by preferential treatment
 ARGUMENTS IN AGAINST OF STRONG
PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT
• It may be direct violation of the rights of other people
acquiring equal opportunity
• Giving such preference involves larger compensation
to minorities and women
 SEXUAL HARASSMENT

• Continuous annoying and attacks on women on the

basis of sexual considerations
• It covers the harassment by female superior of male
employees, sexual harassment of employees by
superiors of the same sex
 DEFINITON

• When applied to women, any sexual oriented practice

which endangers a woman’s job, that undermines her
job performance and treatens her economic livelihood
• It is the unwanted imposition of sexual requirements
in the context of relationship of unequal power
 FORMS OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT

• In an interview for a post of secretary a woman is told

that the job will be given to her only when she is
ready to give sexual favors to the interviewer
• A woman is told by her superior that she will be
given first priority for receiving a promotion if she is
ready to adjust him by means of sexual contacts
• A male colleague of a woman continuously looks at
her and makes sexual comments
 CONCLUSION

• It may be in the form of threats of penalties. Offers of

rewards
• It may takes place at anywhere

• Duty ethics gives strong disapproval of the sexual

harassment
• An utilitarinan argues that it spoils the happiness and
self-fulfillment of the victims