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Human resources: employers need cell-phone
policy
By Melanie Payne – Sacramento Bee Staff
Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Monday, June 10, 2002
Just what you need, another item for the all-too-thick
employee handbook, but here it is anyway: Put in a cell-phone
use policy for employees who are driving.
In a number of recent lawsuits, employers are being held liable
for their employees' cellular phone use.
In Virginia, a law firm was sued for $30 million after one
of its attorneys hit and killed a 15-year-old. The girl's
parents alleged the attorney on the cell phone was talking
firm business.
In another case, a plaintiff received a multimillion-dollar
award after an employee of a lumber company was involved in
an automobile accident moments after placing a sales call
using a cell phone.
The third-party liability is an important consideration for
employers, but "the primary consideration is the safety
of the employee," said James T. Cahalan, an attorney
with the Sacramento office of Morrison & Foerster LLP.
Cell phones have become an integral part of the business environment,
Cahalan said, and an outright ban on cell phone use is impractical.
There are about 110 million people in the U.S. with cellular
phones, and 85 percent of them use the phones while driving.
That despite a New England Journal of Medicine study that
found the risk of collision while driving and using a cell
phone is four times greater than driving while not using a
cell phone.
Employers can make rules that severely limit cell phone use
on the road or make it safer, Cahalan said. Some employers
require employees to pull into a rest stop or gas station
to use the phone, and some go as far as requiring that the
employee not be sitting in the vehicle while using the phone.
Another good idea, Cahalan said, is for employers to invest
in hands-free phones for employees' vehicles. It's a small
investment to make for the health and safety of your employees,
Cahalan said.
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