As a consumer, a citizen and an employee, you have rights. Obviously we all have rights granted to us by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, but we also have rights born of years of improved workplace regulation and legal-precedent amendments to the Constitution. While I cannot list all of these rights in the space of this chapter, just know that in general you are entitled to safe working and living environments, a life free from legal discrimination and the chance to seek compensation should you be harmed by the actions of someone else.
For example: you should never be made to feel unsafe at work. Your employer has the responsibility to make sure that your work environment is safe and that it conforms to the law. This is not an option for employers, but rather a requirement under federal and state laws that have been largely driven by deadly accidents and subsequent lawsuits. Organizations such as OSHA are the results of such regulations and are supposed to enforce these laws.
In addition, other individuals are expected to respect your rights. These include the civil rights dictated by the Constitution and the ideals set out in the Declaration of Independence: that all men are created equal and that you have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
So how do corporations and individuals violate your rights? Corporations are made up of people, just like many public institutions or groups. But unlike most entities, corporations are driven by profits first. The quest for profits can lead some within these companies to cut corners or even wantonly ignore safety in the name of a buck. It can sometimes start small, with a supervisor ignoring safety concerns, then grow large, with the leadership of the company deciding to deceive the public knowingly, as the tobacco companies did.
People acting on their own give in to the same selfishness that corporations do. The idea that their own pursuits are more important than the safety and well-being of other people can lead to heinous acts. Hit–and-run drivers are as callous as it gets—to leave someone lying on the street dying as you speed away in order to preserve your own way of life is something most people could not comprehend doing, but it happens. As do other less severe things, such as ignoring the maintenance of one’s property in a way that can cause injury. In addition, pool accidents take the lives of many children every year because the pool owners don’t take the care to lock a gate.
The Victims
Anyone can be a victim of a corporation or individual that decides to ignore safety. You have to be vigilant about your own personal safety and look out for situations that could be harmful. But even vigilance isn’t enough, and the tens of thousands of personal injuries and deaths suffered around our country are evidence of that.
Consumers are often the most public victims of malfeasance but the consumer isn’t the only victim of violations. Employees are put at risk every day when managers decide that expensive safety measures are too costly and will cut in to profits. These managers bend to the pressure from shareholders or owners to squeeze every dollar out of each day of work done. The results are often debilitating injuries.
When you see someone else injured at your workplace, think back to the idea of the rules that govern our society. If your coworkers or friends can get hurt through the reckless actions of someone else, how can you be sure that you’ll be safe?
Unfortunately, in many cases, the victims are made out to be villains. They are painted as money-hungry and greedy—the same traits that led to their injuries. It isn’t easy dealing with the aftermath of a debilitating injury because you feel shock, anger, denial and fear. Your rights have been violated and that’s something no one really expects to happen.
Enron is a great example of a company that ignored the public good for the sake of profit. They put people’s lives in danger by withholding electricity from California. Millions were without power, including elderly citizens who depended on electrically powered medical equipment. Countless public-service employees had to respond to the near-chaos that resulted from the rolling blackouts that blanketed the state.
Enron cooked the books and made billions as a result of their malfeasance. The people most directly hurt were the shareholders and employees, who lost billions of dollars in combined retirement money. The state of California also lost out because it was being charged exorbitant amounts for electricity as Enron created a false shortage of power in order to jack up prices.
While Enron’s case is not directly related to personal injury in an obvious way, it demonstrates just how widespread the damage can be when one company breaks the agreed-upon rules. You’ll see in the next chapter what can happen when a company breaks rules that are designed to keep people safe in a physical sense of the word.
When customers are put at risk—e.g., when lead paint is used in children’s toys—the consequences can be devastating. There is a betrayal that takes place when a company puts its product in a store, charges money for them and makes customers believe that everything will be fine. It goes beyond fraud and speaks to a total lack of regard for human life. When you buy a car or a motorcycle or a toy for your children, you are putting lives in the hands of complete strangers. Without a strict set of rules and severe penalties for breaking these rules, our society could not continue to function as it does now.
Taking the Profits Out of Rule Breaking
You are not powerless to stop dangerous behaviors. Never feel as though you are being a nuisance or a nag for demanding that your rights be respected. You have the right to safety and no one should be able to take that away from you.
If your rights are infringed upon at work, you can demand that your company improves its safety efforts or that it addresses any harassments you might face. If you feel you are being persecuted for doing so, you have the law on your side again with the federal whistle-blower laws.
It’s hard sometimes to be the nail that sticks out; no one wants to be seen as causing problems or as hurting the company. But you are not doing anything wrong by expecting your rights to be respected. In fact, you will be doing your fellow workers and, ultimately, the company itself a favor by fighting for your rights.
You can also expose bad behavior by contacting an attorney and taking legal action. Thousands of people have been saved by employees or investigators who have alerted the public to corporations that put profits in front of safety. Public safety is the winner in these cases.
Legal action is so powerful because attorneys know the law and know how to stand up to companies that might be able to intimidate an individual without representation. A good example of that is seen in the insurance world. Attorneys have played a part in making insurance companies pay claims on time rather than delaying payment, which many try to do in order to scare off claimants.
By forcing people and companies to pay stiff penalties for their reckless behavior, plaintiffs and their attorneys take the profits out of rule breaking. It becomes too expensive to ignore public safety and as a result, your life is safer. Your medicines are better labeled, your car is safer, your job is safer and your ability to get compensated for injury is better.
And this is a pattern repeated throughout our nation’s legal history. Defendant actions force changes to safety programs and not only result in damages paid out after incidents but also better preventative measures to avoid injuries in the first place.
Everywhere we look the public has been made safer by the idea that if a company ignores safety, it will be faced with liability later. Our public places have better security and our physical structures have fewer defects, such as wear and tear and cracks. Companies update their compliance with codes and employees have safer jobs as a result.
