RunTheRisk

Ah, the old adage holds true.  Don’t get ahead of yourselves…  AB165 of the 2011-2012 session was vetoed by Gov. Brown.  The veto letter is outstanding, read it here This is the bill that would have disallowed schools and booster clubs alike for charging for school activities.  The bill itself was an outgrowth of the ACLU lawsuit which sought to continue to provide a free public education.  The comments on AB165 are lengthy, see the quote below.  The good news is that it was vetoed, meaning that schools can continue to raise funds without taking a loss on programs and services.   The issue is that if this would have passed, then any student would be able to participate in any after school activity, camp, club, etc.. without having to share in the cost to run the program.  Let’s say that you have a science camp and it is going to cost $100 per student for labs and food.  Under AB165, you would have to offer this to all students whether they voluntarily wanted to pay or not…  So, now you have 400 students show up for your camp, but only two paid.  Guess what – no more programs.

          In September 2010, the ACLU filed a class action lawsuit against
          the state, claiming that many fees charged to students for
          school activities and supplies violated the California
          Constitution and various provisions of the Education Code ÝJane
          Doe, et al. v. State of California, et al., (Super. Ct. Los
          Angeles County, 2010, BC445151)].  Anonymous students "Jane Doe"
          and "Jason Roe," the plaintiffs, attend unnamed high schools in
          Orange County.  The complaint states that Jane Doe's school
          requires students to purchase textbooks, workbooks, and novels
          assigned for credit courses. The school charges additional fees,
          including Advance Placement exam fees when the examination is a
          course requirement and affects students' grades, and an
          enrollment fee. Jason Roe's school requires students to purchase
          workbooks, lab manuals, and physical education uniforms, as well
          as locks and student agendas as a requirement of school
          enrollment.

If your like us, then you are tried of reading all your news, information and especially all that legal jargon.  The good news is that we are preparing to roll out audio podcasts in the very near future.  We are going to cover all the base information we normally do, but in fun format.  So, get ready – risk management while you jog!

We have good news here.  Under California labor code section 230.8 employers with 25 or more  employees working working at the same location must allow you to take up to eight hours a month and up to 40 hours  per year to view your child performing their school activities.  Don’t be fooled though, you could be required to take vacation time to do so

 

230.8.  (a) (1) No employer who employs 25 or more employees working
at the same location shall discharge or in any way discriminate
against an employee who is a parent, guardian, or grandparent having
custody, of one or more children in kindergarten or grades 1 to 12,
inclusive, or attending a licensed child day care facility, for
taking off up to 40 hours each year, not exceeding eight hours in any
calendar month of the year, to participate in activities of the
school or licensed child day care facility of any of his or her
children, if the employee, prior to taking the time off, gives
reasonable notice to the employer of the planned absence of the
employee.
   (2) If both parents of a child are employed by the same employer
at the same worksite, the entitlement under paragraph (1) of a
planned absence as to that child applies, at any one time, only to
the parent who first gives notice to the employer, such that the
other parent may take a planned absence simultaneously as to that
same child under the conditions described in paragraph (1) only if he
or she obtains the employer's approval for the requested time off.
   (b) (1) The employee shall utilize existing vacation, personal
leave, or compensatory time off for purposes of the planned absence
authorized by this section, unless otherwise provided by a collective
bargaining agreement entered into before January 1, 1995, and in
effect on that date. An employee also may utilize time off without
pay for this purpose, to the extent made available by his or her
employer. The entitlement of any employee under this section shall
not be diminished by any collective bargaining agreement term or
condition that is agreed to on or after January 1, 1995.
   (2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), in the event that all
permanent, full-time employees of an employer are accorded vacation
during the same period of time in the calendar year, an employee of
that employer may not utilize that accrued vacation benefit at any
other time for purposes of the planned absence authorized by this
section.
   (c) The employee, if requested by the employer, shall provide
documentation from the school or licensed child day care facility as
proof that he or she participated in school or licensed child day
care facility activities on a specific date and at a particular time.
For purposes of this subdivision, "documentation" means whatever
written verification of parental participation the school or licensed
child day care facility deems appropriate and reasonable.
   (d) Any employee who is discharged, threatened with discharge,
demoted, suspended, or in any other manner discriminated against in
terms and conditions of employment by his or her employer because the
employee has taken time off to participate in school or licensed
child day care facility activities as described in this section shall
be entitled to reinstatement and reimbursement for lost wages and
work benefits caused by the acts of the employer. Any employer who
willfully refuses to rehire, promote, or otherwise restore an
employee or former employee who has been determined to be eligible
for rehiring or promotion by a grievance procedure, arbitration, or
hearing authorized by law shall be subject to a civil penalty in an
amount equal to three times the amount of the employee's lost wages
and work benefits.

Okay so you been terminated or otherwise are separating employment and your employer wants you to sign a release of all claims.  I don’t have wages available for you right then and there. So do you sign?  this is really a great question for attorney and you should seek the advice to an attorney if you feel that you are going to find yourself in this situation.  California labor code section 206.5 regulates the employer’s request for a release without payment being available.

CA labor code 206.5. (a) An employer shall not require the execution of a release
of a claim or right on account of wages due, or to become due, or
made as an advance on wages to be earned, unless payment of those
wages has been made. A release required or executed in violation of
the provisions of this section shall be null and void as between the
employer and the employee. Violation of this section by the employer
is a misdemeanor.
(b) For purposes of this section, “execution of a release”
includes requiring an employee, as a condition of being paid, to
execute a statement of the hours he or she worked during a pay period
which the employer knows to be false.

A frequent question in education revolves around class-size?  In this particular instance what is the class-size for an industrial education program classroom?  The first issue is going to be one that is involved in building code and fire code, meaning that the room is designed to hold only so many people are another terms max occupancy.  When we look at class-size for industrial education.  We’re looking at education code section 49320.  this section of education code limits the number of students to the number of basic workstations that were designed for that room and are operational at the time of use.

49320.  A basic work station in industrial education is defined as
an assigned location where a student normally spends the majority of
his class time performing the operational functions necessary to meet
the performance objectives and goals of the course, including
industrial safety education. For these purposes, the number of
students in any industrial education facility or laboratory in
elementary and secondary programs shall not exceed the number of
basic work stations designed for the number of students assigned, as
determined by the local governing board of the school district.

At the WeTip Naitonal Conference, one of the speakers showed this video. They stated that it was important because without the dress code kids are students who want to enact violence may do so by stuffing guns and other illegal drugs in their pants.  After you watch the video and you can shoot on over to YouTube.com and check out all the commentary from the people that watch this movie.  It’s all over the board.

I don’t typically weigh in on topics from an opinion standpoint, but today I had a very enlightening conversation with the colleague in regard to safety committees. Safety committees generally do not appeal to me for the simple fact that safety committees get bogged down in bureaucracy and other unimportant time-consuming endeavors. However, I did find one good use for safety committees that had a real impact on the organizations in which they operated.

Many years ago I worked for a major insurance company in Omaha Nebraska, and I was tasked with starting the safety committee at the direction of my boss. It was a task that I was not looking forward to. I had been involved in many safety committees in my previous lives and I did not want to be part of another safety committee that drones on about number of incidents, number of dollars spent and so on and so forth; let alone be the sole reason it existed in the first place. So I thought I would turn the safety committee on its head. Instead of focusing on the typical day-to-day humdrum issues that safety committees normally deal with and I went full throttle in the opposite direction. I made the safety committee fun!

Our safety committee did not focus on these minor tasks. We focused on having fun and building culture, a safety culture! If you ever look into an organization and want to know why they’re having accidents and why their employees don’t operate in a safe manner – the answer is simple to find! They don’t have the safety culture.

So what is the safety culture that we speak of? In its essence it is nothing more than culture revolving around the acts of being safe. If you are going dictionary.com and search the word “culture”, you would find this:

“cul·ture
   /ˈkʌltʃər/ Show Spelled [kuhl-cher] Show IPA noun, verb, -tured, -tur·ing.
–noun
1.
the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc.
2.
that which is excellent in the arts, manners, etc.
3.
a particular form or stage of civilization, as that of a certain nation or period: Greek culture.
4.
development or improvement of the mind by education or training.
5.
the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group: the youth culture; the drug culture.
6.
Anthropology . the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another.
7.
Biology .
a.
the cultivation of microorganisms, as bacteria, or of tissues, for scientific study, medicinal use, etc.
b.
the product or growth resulting from such cultivation.
8.
the act or practice of cultivating the soil; tillage.
9.
the raising of plants or animals, especially with a view to their improvement.
10.
the product or growth resulting from such cultivation.”

So, as you can see it is a quality of a person or a society. In our case, it is the quality of being safe, reducing risks and not performing actions that require risky behavior.

So, how do we build a safety culture? Well, it is no easy task build a safety culture. It requires dedication, sweat, blood, tears, hard work and a whole lot of effort. It doesn’t happen in three months and it’s certainly doesn’t happen six months-although I did see one brave soul perform the task at a community college in Whittier, California, that this individual was a sacrificial lamb and knew from the outstart that what he was to do was build safety culture and that by doing so. His actions were going to disturb a whole lot of people and that he would ultimately be fired. But he pulled it off and because he didn’t culture was born among these people who now lives on.

So in order to build a safety culture among an organization of hundred thousand people in 1600 locations across United States and to countries outside the United States, I had to do the impossible. Have to take a organizational department that was not a profit center and spend more money having fun and turning profits-at least that’s the way looked on paper first year.

So, here’s what I did. I threw away the books and I threw away the stats and focused on having over-the-top events highlighting things that not only permeated the workplace but the home environment. These things were things that are employees could take home and teach their kids, things like the dangers of driving, smoking, not exercising, reading right. We had a huge safety fair and I let all of the individuals on safety committee decide what type of booth they wanted to have and I assisted them in getting their booth. We ended up bringing up crash test dummies and the “drunk goggles” from the Highway Patrol and Nebraska. We let them play shoot off fire extinguishers at will. But we didn’t set a pan on fire, no, we set human dummies on fire and let our fellow employees put them out.

We did not work on writing and IIPP, no, we worked on fun stuff like finding every chemical and the whole company. We found more than 1600 chemicals in the print shop alone, not excuse me wasn’t chemicals it was ink. That’s right – 1600 different kinds of ink. We got an account from MSDSonline.com and we hijacked our computer IT lab, we split up all those chemicals by the 20 people on the committee, and by the end of the day we had entered them all.

I gave her safety committee members T-shirts that read “safety committee” and I sent them out on the floor to the fire extinguisher inspections. When they were asked what they were doing they probably said “I’m part of the safety committee and I’m doing fire extinguisher inspections”. It showed other employees in the organization that they really cared about their fellow mates and that they were going to take the extra steps needed to do something about it. We had a professional gymnasium in our organization where everybody can work out in any time during the day are safety committee members would assist in this gym making sure that people were safe. They weren’t physical therapist network trainers but they sure could give you a lesson on proper lifting techniques.

I also gave Oliver safety committee members badges, and plaques, and name plates for their cubicles. When other employees would walk by their desk they would see these things and they knew that if they had an issue or problem that wasn’t being addressed they could just simply stop in this person’s cubicle and tell them and they knew that they were part of the saved money and that the safety committee would actually do something about the problem.

I taught are safety committee members that we weren’t searching for problems weren’t searching and penalize people they were researching help people that we would do anything in our power to ensure that whenever they made a request to actually follow through on it.

Bottom line is that we made them visible made an important let them have fun and we didn’t at any point in time ever give them makeshift job that was labor sonorous painstaking. No, we gave them fun jobs, jobs they could be proud of, jobs that made a difference, and we loved it, they love it, and the organization loved it. Pretty soon, everyone in Omaha new about safe working environment at this large insurance company. And everyone wanted to be a part of it. Local fire department user facility for high-rise training tactics. Other organizations asked us to train their folks. And that was the highest complement you could ever want to receive – imitation!