Employer’s Duty of Care To what extent are employees required to perform their job with a duty of care? We all know that corporate officers have a duty of care to the corporation that they are employed by. They have an obligation to perform their duties with the care that a person in a like position would reasonably exercise under similar circumstances (Halbert & Ingulli, 2010, p 52). As a fellow employee down on the totem pole, we are held to the same standard to act in good faith in whatever position that we hold. Our employers also have that same duty to take care of the employees that perform the day to day tasks to make the company successful. Whether it is through extra time off, increase in pay, or better benefits employers have an obligation to their employees. The relationship that employers have with their employee requires that duty of care is displayed by both parties. 1. Explain whether Jake’s actions are in or out of “his scope of employment.” In the video Jake, the service manager, provided a basic inspection of the cars along with the oil change. While the promotion only required a free oil change the inspection was within his scope of employment. Scope of employment refers to anything a person does in the ordinary course of doing his or her job (“Scope of Employment”). Generally, an act will be considered part of an employee’s employment if it is committed while he or she is performing services for the company or incident to the provision of services for the company (Segal, 1994). Herman (the employer) does not require Jake to do the inspections, but since Jake is professionally certified he must provide a duty of care and duty of loyalty to the business and its customers. Since Jake is certified it means that he stands by his work, and that he is competent to work as a mechanic. After the inspections Jake could find something wrong and that could potentially bring more business to Herman’s car dealership. 2. Explain whether or not Herman is responsible for Jake’s injury.
Since Jake was injured on the job Herman would be responsible for Jake’s injury. Jake would be covered under the worker’s compensation program. Workers’ compensation is a form of insurance that provides compensation medical care for employees who are injured in the course of employment. In exchange the employee relinquishes the right to sue the employer for the tort of negligence (Workers Compensation 2010). The worker’s compensation program is a national program, but its laws vary state to state. If Jake decides that his injury is severe enough he did the right thing by having Herman acknowledge it. Also Jake should go to the hospital or visit his doctor to take a look at his injury. This would be in his best interest so that is documented, and no red flags would arise when the state workers compensation board reviews his claim. 3. Explain whether or not Jake should be paid the overtime.
Since Jake is a service manager he is not entitled to be paid overtime. More than likely since Jake is part of the Rally management team he is probably getting paid a salary. Overtime is usually for hourly or non-exempt employees. Salaried employees are also eligible for overtime unless the fall under one the following exemptions. * Executives/Managers * Administrators * Professionals * Computer Professionals * Outside and Commissioned Salespersons (Employment Law, 2010).
In order for Jake to be paid overtime he would have to make less than $455/week and none of the exemptions above could apply to him.

4. Explain the rights Jake and Herman have individually in this scenario. In this scenario both Jake and Herman have individual rights being employee and employer. As the employer Jake has the right to expect for employees to work overtime in order to get the job done. Herman has the right of duty of care to the business. Herman must act in good faith to provide quality service in order to promote the business. The free oil change promotion helps bring in customers for the business. Jake has the right to file for worker’s compensation since he was injured on the job. Jake also has an obligation to provide quality service for each car that he services being that he is a certified mechanic. Since Jake is a salaried manager he cannot request that he gets paid overtime. In most cases managers usually have other performance based incentives that are offered since they do not receive pay for overtime. In this scenario Jake and Herman both felt that their position was correct. Although Jake cannot be paid for his overtime he could file workers compensation if he felt that his injury was serious enough. While the promotion was a smart way to bring it customers it could’ve been handled differently. The way that it was handled put a strain on the service department, and there were probably a lot of unhappy customers. There should have been some sort of discussion between the managers to see what would be needed to make the promotion a success. In this meeting Jake could have expressed his concerns, and this situation would’ve been handled before the free oil change promotion would have started. Also before Jake was promoted to manager he should have discussed what his duties would include, and also his benefits. Here he would have found out that he would not be eligible for overtime. If the lines of communications had been opened a lot if these issues could have been alleviated by the employer and employee.

References
Alexis. W. (2010, September 10). What is Scope of Employment. Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-scope-of-employment.htm

Employment Law: Overtime Pay Exemptions. (2010) Retrieved from http://www.scalaw.com/faqs/wageAndHourLaw/overtimeExemption.php

Halbert, T., & Ingulli, E. (2010). Law and Ethics in the Business Environment Mason, Ohio: Cengage Learning

Segal, A., J. (1994, June 01). When Charles Manson comes to the workplace. (violence in the workplace) (Legal Trends). HR Magazine, ({39}) 33(6), Retrieved from http://elibrary.bigchalk.com

Workers Compensation (2010, November 12). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workers_compensation