Question

You are the Vice President of Human Resources for Big City Hospital and two issues have come up that you need to make a written report to the CEO to alert her of the possible exposure of the hospital. In one instance, to relieve some of the stress from the laundry and cleaning crews in the hospital, due to the Covid-19 epidemic and working long hours they have and under extreme conditions, several hourly employees went to the local playground to play basketball. During the pickup game, two employees were injured, one with a broken leg and the other with a broken arm.

In the second instance you have to report on two female nurses who have submitted a complaint that our top infectious disease doctor has been taking unwanted liberties with them, including unwanted foundling and kissing. He has also intimated they could go to one of the spare empty patient rooms and have some fun.

In issue one (employees injured playing basketball) you may have to deny them medical and wage coverage as, in your opinion they may not qualify for workman’s comp coverage, which will look awful to the press during this time. Tell her, (the CEO), why you have come to that conclusion of non-coverage and support your finding by sharing case law with her.

Answer 1

This report is prepared to bring to your notice of two serious incidents, which may affect the reputation of our prestigious hospital. Due to the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic situation, there has been a long hectic day for our laundry and cleaning crews and to relieve themselves, they are in the habit of playing basketball in the local playground. The issue one is that while playing basketball, two employees got hurt by breaking their arm and leg. In this case, if they want coverage under workman's comp coverage, I may have to deny them compensation because basketball playing or other recreational activities are not a part of the employment contract, The incident does not happen in our campus but in the local playground, we do not force them to play basketball during employment hours, our business is also not deriving any benefit if the employees are playing football. There are some cases where compensation is paid like that of a case where a boy working in NYSE was allowed compensation the ground that he was a hired player for the tournament and it was for employer's benefit. In another case, a school staff got injured while selecting the cricket team for the school. He was paid compensation because it was his duty to select the team but here it is not the employee's duty to play basketball during office hours. On these grounds, they should be denied compensation as medical and wage coverage.

The second issue is regarding the complaint made by two females nurses on an infectious disease doctor and doing some indecent activities like forcefully fondling, kissing, and telling them to go some empty rooms with him to have fun with him. This type of cheap activity will degrade the prestige or goodwill of the hospital. I think a very strict disciplinarian action should be taken to prevent, such activities in our prestigious hospital. If these activities get leaked in the general public, our hospital's reputation will be ruined.

All these information are shared for your kind consideration and necessary action.