Human Resource Dilemmas 1. Thompson Medical Supply has been experiencing a theft

Question

Human Resource Dilemmas

1. Thompson Medical Supply has been experiencing a theft of medical equipment on the late shift from its Atlanta factory. It decides to polygraph all 35 of its employees who work the late shift. They object, claiming violation of the EPPA. How would you advise them?

2. Superior Teen Baseball League sponsors 2 travel teams in addition to its regular 12-team league. The travel teams each have three coaches. These coaches are paid a modest salary, unlike the league coaches who volunteer. Superior decides to institute a suspicionless drug test for the travel team coaches only. They complain that they are being treated differently. How would you advise them?

3. Rolling Hills is an affluent, predominantly white town. It borders Flatlands, a less affluent community that is predominantly Mexican. Rolling Hills has recently passed an ordinance that states that all municipal employees must reside within the town. There is no unemployment problem in Rolling Hills. When a number of Flatlands residents apply to Rolling Hills for positions with the police, fire, and sanitation departments, they are refused for failing to meet the residency requirement. How would you advise them?

Explanation / Answer

1.

The Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988 (EPPA) is a federal law which prevents employers from using lie detector tests for both pre-employment screening and in between the tenure of employment. However there are certain exemptions to this such as the security purposes and medical equipment manufacturers and distributors.

In this case the company is going through a internal theft which needs to be stopped immediately. This being a medical equipment case, maybe leading to huge losses to the company. Thus, to avoid any losses which may ultimately harm the company’s repute and also, impact the salary of employees in case of company’s profit getting vanished, the company needs to check the employees for polygraph.

However, the company should first try to inquire through other ways such as interrogation of employees individual, CCTV footage inspection or security guard interrogation etc.

Thus, by making the employees understand about the need of the test and insuring them about the secrecy of the results, the company can go ahead with the test.

note: as per chegg guidelines, only one question should be asked at one time.

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