Conflict Question
A member of our administrative safety group who deals mostly in programs and compliance, has an outside business where he provides limited safety services, including providing and servicing fire extinguishers, eye washes, and AEDs. He does not provide these services to our primary facility. I inspected several of satellite facilities and warehouses today and found all of these items that had been provided by him or regularly inspected by him (or an employee of his outside company). Is this unethical?
Comments (8)
Yes, this is a direct conflict of interest, especially if there's a non-compete in effect.
I put it depends only because if it was agreed upon and is on the up and up, then it wouldn’t be unethical. Did your company not realize it was his business that they were contracting with?
Otherwise, yeah it’s definitely a conflict of interest
If all’s above board and went through competitive bid process, he is good. If not it’s unethical.
I need more information. Profit/ Non-Profit? Is the guy getting paid by you, an employee, volunteer, or contractor? If an employee Salaried Exempt, or Hourly Non-Exempt? Do you have a Corporate or Company Ethics Policy? Public Held Corporation or small LLC? Without that information "It Depends!"
At my last Corporate Job I signed an Ethics Agreement per the Ethics Policy. It was a couple lines up from the form I signed when I got my annual review. I always thought that was smart but sneaky. In any case my Ethics Policy make it clear I was a Salaried Exempt Employee and paid an annual salary to do MY JOB, which included all the above things you mentioned and much more. If I ran another company and then turned around charged the my employer for services I was already getting paid for, that would be a definite breech of the Ethics Policy (for "double dipping"). I would be summarily discharged and probably sued to pay back what I had been paid extra! There were also provisions that would prevent me from hiring my wife or kids' company for those services! In my company in HR, Accounting (& Payroll), and Supply Chain, I could not hire any member of my family in to the sane location I was located. If you were salaried, no member of my family could be in my "chain-of-command" company wide, period!"
If I was an hourly employee things would be different, as I was paid for my labor "hourly". That means I could do most as you described.
Pre-Enron there as lots were "questionable" stuff going on even in public held corporations (stocks). As a supervisor I could routinely call up to Purchasing and request Packer, Bucks, and Brewer tickets. They would call a vendor and I would have the tickets by Friday! Packer tickets in NE WI are impossible to get! Post Sarbanes / Oxley Act, you can only make business decisions based on business criteria, not based on the tickets someone gave you! You have to make decisions based on the best interest of the STOCK HOLDERS
Update. This person was providing these third party contact services before he was hired. His hiring included the disclosure of this possible conflict. So all above board