Ethics and Law in Business and Society - Research Paper Example

Ethics and Law in Business and Society Introduction The Compensation act of Federal employees is considered as the compensation program for the federal employees. The programs related to this act generally provide survivors, disability and medical benefits to the federal employees. The Federal Employees’ compensation funds are generally financed by the appropriations from the Congress. In addition to this, the federal employees, Compensation Act programs are monitored and administered by the office of worker’s compensation program and the department of labor (Curro, Gordon & Robins, 2001). This report will try to incorporate each and every aspect that is associated with this act. The study will describe the policy or law related to the Federal Employees’ compensation act. A brief description about its history will helps the leaders to determine the goals and objectives of this act. In addition to this, the report will try to find out the impact of these acts on the business environment and society. Significant analysis and evaluation of the policies have been conducted to determine the effectiveness of these policies. Lastly, the study will provide some recommendation plans in order to overcome the possible issues and challenges. History of the Act It is important for the government, authorized bodies and employers to take care of the needs of the employees in an organization as employees are considered as one of the major assets of an organization. Significant work performance of the skilled and effective employees helps the business organization to achieve significant growth rate. In addition to this, effective business perform ace of the business units ensures economic growth of a nation. This specific act or program was required in order to cover and support the basic rights of the employees in an organization. This Federal Employees’ compensation act was developed in the year 1916 to ensure social welfare. This act was developed in order o support those employees who are physically or mentally unable to justify job responsibility. The major objective behind the development for the acts and programs was basically for a good social cause. It was highly important for the employees who are disabled, retired or physically challenged to get the benefits from the employers or from the federal government or from the authorized bodies to look after himself and his family. These funds can be provided to all the employees who are affected due to the workplace related issues. In addition to this, several Federal Employees’ Compensation Act programs were started to organize by the federal government in order to improve the scenario of the society. According to this act, an individual can get different benefits based on the eligibility. The elements of the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act program include several aspects. According to this act, each and every mentally or physically affected employee in a workplace can get significant compensation or service benefits (Ullmann, 2003). It is important for an organization to ensure healthy and safe workplace environment. The federal government of United States of America supported this act and act related programs to ensure the security of each and every disabled employees. Several types of benefit policies are proposed and developed in order to improve the life style of these types of federal employees. However the policy makers failed to develop the policy measures that created several conflicts and issues in later part. Several differentiated policies were developed and implemented under this Federal Employees’ Compensation Act in the year 1974 due to rising problems and issues in the states. however, the federal government of United States of America and other policy makers somehow failed to fulfill its overall objective due to lack of effective policy measures and i9nadequate development of eligibility criteria. Now-a-days, several organizations are trying to implement sustainable business practices in order to overcome the legal and social issues. Recently, the federal government of the United States of America are motivating and influencing several organizations to focus on the social welfare activities. However, it is important for the organizations to provide effective services regarding the assured employee benefit aspects. These developed policies under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act forces the organizations to ensure the safety, security and social recognition of each and every federal employee. However, it has been identified that these specific policies have both positive and negative impact on the business environment and society. First of all, these developed policies motivate the organization to practice sustainable business practices. In addition to this, the organization ensures effective workplace environment and compensation benefit security in order to motivate the important external stakeholders in the decision making process. Effective corporate governance, significant sustainable business policy development and transparent or clear ethical activities can help the organizations to get support from the federal government of the United States of America. in addition to this, several leading organization participates in the Federal Employee’ Compensation Act programs organized by Congress, Federal government of United States of America and several authorized bodies. Trace its implementation The major objective behind the development of this policies and acts is to enhance social welfare activities. Employees who used to lose their lives or become physically challenged can get the benefits from the developed policies. Medical benefits, retirement benefits and compensation benefits are considered as the major federal employee benefits under this policy. In terms of disabled employees, the compensation benefits are distributed among the employees or the family members of the employees based on the eligibility criteria. There are three types of disability benefits for the federal employees, such as scheduled disability benefits, total disability benefits and partial disability benefits. Under the partial disability benefits, federal employees can get the benefits equal to 25 percent of the pre-disability benefit of the employees on monthly basis. Under the scheduled disability benefits, employees can get the benefits equal to 50 percent of the pre-disability benefits. On the other hand, federal employees used to receive benefits equal to 25 percent of pre-disability monthly wage. Therefore, it can be stated that the policy makers have tried to develop and implement several policies for the employees. The federal government of the United States of America sincerely tries to give several significant opportunities to the federal employees. However, it has been identified that, in several cases the policy makers and Federal government failed to meet the actual objective due to lack of policy measures. It is important for a policy developer to review the development process of the polices before implementing these publically. In adequate development or implementation plan can affect the cause or will stop an individual to meet the objective. However, somehow federal government succeeded to overcome the situation. But, lack of expertise in the implementation process of each and every policy created several conflicts among the governmental bodies. In addition to these beneficial policies, the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act has other differentiated policies and programs. Retirement benefits and medical benefits are considered as the other major important policies developed under this act. Earlier, major organizations tried to neglect the workplace health and safety aspects in order to reduce the business operation cost. It created several conflicts among the governmental policy development teams (Sisk & Noone, 2006). These workplace health and safety issues forced the policy makers to think about sustainable policy development process. Policies about the medical benefits help the employees or retired employee of an organization to achieve significant advantages of several healthcare services. Under the policies of Federal Employee’s Compensation act, all the medical costs are provided by these benefit funds. This medical cost includes therapies, medical devices and medications. The federal government of the United States of America generally pays each and every cost of diseases and injury related healthcare services. In addition to this, the federal government used to take care of the additional death benefits. This additional death compensation benefit helps the family of the employees to survive effectively. The retirement benefit policy under the Federal Employees’ compensation act programs created conflicts. In the financial year 2014, President of United States of America, Mr. Barrack Obama gave a proposal to reform this beneficial policy (Bertoni, 2003). All the agencies were motivated to pay according to the fair share programs to the retired employees. The proposal for change was necessary as the previous implementation process was not effective enough. In addition to this, several employers denied to make the eligibility certificates to the agencies. Therefore, the federal government started to reform the policy implementation process to avoid the challenges. It is clear from the above discussions that the retired beneficial programs are also full of conflicts. Lack of effective communication between the policy developers and organizations actually deprived some retired federal employees from the much needed retirement benefits. Impact on business and society The provision of the federal law has allowed the federal employees to claim and receive compensation from their host agencies in case of suffering injuries or illness or claim for survival benefits in the event of death. The cost of the benefits is to be borne by the agencies that have employed these federal workers as mentioned under the law. The federal law on the compensation of the federal employees has offered essential benefits desired by the employees at work and at the same time increased the cost of the businesses which has employed these workers for federal work. In case of traumatic injuries faced by the federal employees during the time of work, the employee is eligible for continuation of pay at the rate of 100% of the salary received by the employee. This has provided protection to the society and its people who are engaged in federal work. The cost borne by the host agencies like the postal department, revenue department, etc. also carry a return benefits for the service and compensation provided by the business to its employees. The host agencies and the various federal agencies are able to restore their goodwill in the industry (Szymendera, 2013). This leads to higher acceptability of federal services among the people of the society. Due this goodwill in the market, the business and the services of the federal agencies are likely to increase with more people of the society accessing the services of the federal agencies. The federal law under which the Federal Employees Compensation Act has been incorporated also contains the benefits under the provisions of partial disability, total disability, death benefits, etc. The survivors of the employees in case of death are covered under this act which aims to serve for the welfare of the society and harnesses the potential prospects of business growth through offering of compensation to the federal employees. Now-a-days, several organizations are trying to implement sustainable business practices in order to overcome the legal and social issues. Recently, the federal government of the United States of America are motivating and influencing several organizations to focus on the social welfare activities. However, it is important for the organizations to provide effective services regarding the assured employee benefit aspects. These developed policies under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act forces the organizations to ensure the safety, security and social recognition of each and every federal employee. However, it has been identified that these specific policies have both positive and negative impact on the business environment and society. First of all, these developed policies motivate the organization to practice sustainable business practices. In addition to this, the organization ensures effective workplace environment and compensation benefit security in order to motivate the important external stakeholders in the decision making process. Effective corporate governance, significant sustainable business policy development and transparent or clear ethical activities can help the organizations to get support from the federal government of the United States of America. in addition to this, several leading organization participates in the Federal Employee’ Compensation Act programs organized by Congress, Federal government of United States of America and several authorized bodies. Policy Analysis The efficacy of the policy of the federal government by implementation of the Federal Employees Compensation Act to cover all federal employees under the medical coverage and compensation benefits due to unforeseen events in the workplace have been explained as follows. The Federal Employees Compensation Act which was introduced long time back in 1916 was amended after 1974 and implemented in order to fulfill the welfare objectives of the federal government with an eye to harness the potential of its business and offered services. The policy of compensation to the federal employees as instituted under the act is being controlled by the Department of Labor and the sanctions under this act are regulated by several sections of the law (United States General Accounting Office, 1996). The benefits offered by the federal government under the Federal Employees Compensation Act (FECA) to the federal employees are stored in the employee’s compensation fund. The funds are disbursed to the employees only in case of valid claims due to injury, illness, workplace related accidents or death. In case of adverse events, the federal employees claim the compensation that they are eligible for and the compensation amounts are disbursed by the host agencies that employ the federal workers. The compensation is paid to the employees through the charge-back process. The compensation benefits are offered under this scheme to a wide range of employees that includes the executives, full time and part time as well as contractual employees that have been working in federal capacities. A snapshot of the compensation benefits provided to the federal employees in the 2010 fiscal has been presented below. Due to efficient running of the compensation scheme, the federal employees have been disbursed a benefits of over $2.8 m in the financial year of 2010. Table 1: Compensation and Medical Benefits offered under FECA in FY 2010 The act does not include any condition under which the compensation may be received or under which the compensation in prohibited. However, the compensation claimed may not be process in cases where the employee has engaged into willful misconduct or cases of intoxication due to which the employee has met with the accident or injury or death. All cases of compensation of the federal employees are addressed and processed by the Office of Worker’s Compensation Program (OWCP) under the Department of Labor (United States Employment Standards Administration, 1999). The implementation of the act for compensation of the federal employees has worked well with the provisions for the employees to challenge the decision of the OWCP in case of dissatisfactory processing of claims. In such cases the employees have the chance to appeal to the Employee’s Compensation Appeal’s Board (ECAB) for a hearing with the OWCP for the validity of the claim. The time limit for the claim after suffering the injury or illness is limited to three years. The policy of the federal government has been effective in addressing the claims due to the injuries, illness or accidents faced by the employees. Evaluation The strengths and weakness of the federal policy of offering compensation to its employees under the FECA scheme have been explained as follows. Due to the FECA scheme, the federal employees have been able to receive claim benefits due to the injuries or illness suffered during the course of work. The survivors of the deceased have also been able to receive benefits from this scheme in the form of compensation. The compensation scheme implemented by the federal government is also run smoothly with ethical decisions on the claims that are put forward by the employees (Mastroianni, Faden & Federman, 1994). The offices of worker’s compensation program have been able to enforce ethical aspects in case of decision making for processing the claims. This has led to lesser number of disputes on account of dissatisfaction of the employees in case of receipt of claims (United States Employment Standards Administration, 1991). An evaluation of the details of the number of cases processed for claim under the Federal Employees Compensation Act has been presented below. Table 2: FECA case details in FY 2012 It could be understood from the category-wise distribution of the federal that have appeared in the claims for FECA that the number of federal employees under the US postal service comprise the greatest section of the recipient of the compensations benefits. Thus the scheme has been able to address the compensation benefits required mostly by the federal employees engaged in the postal services due to their nature of work and outdoor activity. The scheme also takes into account the benefits due to occurrence of partial disabilities which are causes of major claim under the scheme. Table 3: Benefits covered under FECA in case of partial disability The weakness of the Federal employees Compensation Scheme lies in the fact that the federal government have been required to carry the burden of the cost of benefits offered to the federal employees in the form of compensation. The retirement benefits offered by FECA have led to the decline of importance of the federal retirement benefits. This has increased substantial cost for running the federal employee’s compensation scheme. Thus the government has taken active steps in reducing the benefits of the employees after the retirement age in order achieve proper integration of FECA with the goals of the federal government. Recommendation Based on the success of the Federal Employees Compensation scheme, a series of policy measures could be recommended to the policy makers after looking into the areas of strength and weakness of this policy. This would help in offering a more integrated welfare scheme for the federal employees that would not only cover the risk of health and injury at work but would also reduce the cost of benefits to be incurred by the federal agencies. The policy makers could look to enforce stricter health and safety standards at workplace for the agencies in order to protect their workers from getting injured. The policy makers could also bring a mandate for setting up of sufficient medical facilities in the workplace in order to protect their workers in case of illness (United States Congress House Committee on Education and Labor, 1980). A monitoring team need to be set up that identifies workers who engage in willful activities of accidents in order to preventive actions against them. All these measures are recommended for improvement of the federal employee’s compensation scheme. Conclusion The impacts of the Federal Employee’s Compensation Act are considerably large on the business and the society. This act under the federal law ensures that compensation is provided to the federal employees without any lapse in case of adverse incidents during the time of work. The incidents at work include the situations where the federal employees may fall ill or may be injured due to unforeseen circumstances. The claim for the compensation due to the unforeseen activity in the workplace could be made within a timeline of 3 years from the occurrence of the injury or illness. The Office of Worker’s Compensation Program under the Department of Labor processes the claims and in cases of dissatisfaction, the employees also have provision of initiating a hearing with the labor department. The scheme has been implemented successfully with the efficient working of the labor department in processing the claims to offer timely compensation to the federal employees under the provision of law. References Bertoni, D. (2003). Federal Worker’s Compensation. New York: Springer. Curro, M., Gordon, B., & Robins, C. (2001). Supporting Congressional Oversight. Washington: CLIO. Mastroianni, A., Faden, R., & Federman, D. (1994). Women and Health Research. New York: McGraw-Hill. Sisk, G., & Noone, M. (2006). Litigation with the Federal Government. New York: ALI-ABA. Szymendera, S. (2013). The Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA): Workers’ Compensation for Federal Employees. Retrieved from: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42107.pdf. Ullman, V. (2003). Labor and Employment Law. Stamford: Cengage Learning. United States Congress House Committee on Education and Labor. (1980). Oversight Hearings on the Federal Employees' Compensation Act: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Labor Standards of the Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, Ninety-sixth Congress, Second Session. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office. United States Employment Standards Administration. (1991). Federal Employees' Compensation Act as amended. Washington: Office of Workers' Compensation Programs. United States Employment Standards Administration. (1999). Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA): questions and answers. Washington: Office of Workers' Compensation Programs. United States General Accounting Office. (1996). Federal Employees' Compensation Act: issues associated with changing benefits for older beneficiaries : briefing report to Congressional requesters. Washington: The Office. Read More