Your Duty of Care to Traveling Employees

Table of Contents

What Does Duty of Care Imply for Corporate Travel?

Ensuring the well-being of employees is an essential duty of employers when it comes to corporate travel.

But to what extent is this duty of care applicable? And how can companies design risk-reduction strategies that work in a world that is changing all the time?

A company travel handbook ought to include an action plan for both anticipated and unforeseen circumstances. The COVID-19 epidemic illustrated the value of having a strategy in place before venturing into uncharted territory.

What precisely is an employer's duty of care, and how can you make sure that your corporate policies are prepared for any eventuality? You will be guided through every step of this guide.

What is Duty of Care in Business Travel?

A company's duty of care to its workers is its honest attempt to keep workers safe from unnecessary risk, whether it be psychological or physical.

When making travel decisions, business travel managers and coordinators have an obligation to consider the interests of all employees of the organization.

Any journey that takes the traveler away from their home and beyond a regular workday is considered business travel, according to the IRS. Your employees fall into this group when you send them out of the city or the area of your main business, and you owe them a duty of care if they are gone for more than one night.

Duty of care always include arranging for safe transport for employees to and from work as well as developing comprehensive risk-reduction plans.

Defining Responsibility in Duty of Care Policies

It is also the traveler's responsibility to control travel risk. The employee is responsible for making sure they follow the safe travel regulations that their firm has established.

Making sure the employee is aware of all the pertinent policies they need to adhere to when traveling is a part of your duty of care as the employer.

You are highlighting the responsibilities of the traveler and the company when you contrast their duty of care with yours as the employer.

Employer Duty of Care

It is your duty as an employer to ensure that none of your workers face unnecessary dangers. Most likely, your corporate travel risk management program already has procedures in place for handling the most frequent issues that can endanger the health, safety, and welfare of your workers.

Your duty of care policy instructions should cover action steps if a traveler:

Misses a flight
Becomes sick while on the trip
Loses an important document (like their license or passport)
Has an accident

Since these issues put your employee's safety and wellbeing in jeopardy when they arise on a journey for work, they fall under your legal purview. While the person addressing the issue works to find a solution, you have the responsibility of ensuring their safe return home.

Traveler Duty of Care

When on a business trip, your staff are not legally obligated to exercise reasonable care.

Actually, if an individual travels for work, the company may also be held accountable for what they do. The employer may be liable for damages if an employee participates in hazardous behavior and is harmed as a result.

Additionally, the employer was accountable when an employee on a business trip brought personal harm to another person.

Of course, these are unlikely situations. However, a 2015 On Call International poll found that workers are more likely to engage in risky behavior (such binge drinking) when traveling for business than when they are at home.

This means that in order to set expectations for your employees' behavior when they are traveling, it is critical to develop and distribute policies.

You can lessen your responsibility by putting these policies in writing and having staff members sign them before to travel.

Industry-Specific OSHA Duty of Care Guidelines

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) regulations were set by the government to regulate worker safety.

While there is some leeway in defining your company's travel policies, OSHA's regulations are rigorous and unforgiving. If you don't abide by them and an employee is hurt while on a work trip, it might cost you a lot.

When you dispatch employees to isolated or dangerous locations, you have an additional duty of care. Because some industries experience higher accident rates than others, OSHA has developed industry-specific recommendations to control risks and protect workers.

OSHA Duty of Care for Construction, Manufacturing and Engineering

Industries with a higher duty of care for traveler safety include manufacturing, oil and gas, construction, and energy. Strict OSHA requirements must be met for this.

Construction and Manufacturing Industry Practices

Manufacturing and construction have consistently ranked close to the top of the list of the riskiest professions in the nation. The risks that come with the job may get worse when workers relocate to a new location.

OSHA recommends proactive practices for these businesses that include using:

Higher-quality products
New techniques
Better, safer equipment

OSHA divides the manufacturing and construction industries into smaller groups. Verify the relevant section to make sure you know precisely what is expected of your company. Examine it in relation to your duty of care policy and safety procedures to make sure you've met all of your legal requirements.

Energy and Oil & Gas Industry Practices

Oil and gas production as well as any profession the government deems to be "green" are included in the energy sector. These are environmentally beneficial vocations.

OSHA has established safety standards specifically for green jobs. Given that both of these groups are regularly exposed to risks, they are frequently comparable to those in the oil and gas industry.

Drilling, trenching, digging, and building green energy systems are dangerous operations that can result in fatalities.

Employers are required by OSHA's General Duty Clause to ensure a safe workplace for their employees.

How You Can Meet Your Duty of Care in a Changing World

After the epidemic, employee travel planning is less clear than before. In certain places, there may also be a chance of civil upheaval.

When preparing for a foreign business trip, it's more crucial than ever to do your homework and stay away from dangerous places. Referring to a business travel risk assessment checklist is beneficial.

When your employees need to go overseas, you may help them make educated decisions and reduce risk by checking travel warnings and consulting CDC guidelines to discover trustworthy information about the destinations.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is duty of care in business travel?

When an organization travels for business, it has a moral and legal duty to safeguard its workers from danger. This is known as the duty of care. This entails offering the required resources, putting reasonable precautions in place to reduce hazards, and watching out for the welfare of the workers during their trip.

What are the key responsibilities of an employer under duty of care?

Employers have a duty of care to ensure that workers are safe, healthy, and well-cared for during business travel. This includes developing and implementing risk management policies, giving workers resources and training, keeping an eye on travel plans and itineraries, reacting to emergencies, and monitoring travel arrangements.

Does duty of care extend to employee behavior during travel?

While it is the duty of employees to behave responsibly and adhere to company standards when traveling on business, businesses may also be held partially accountable for actions taken by their staff members that cause harm to other people or themselves. Employer liability can be decreased by establishing clear regulations, offering training, and getting employee acknowledgements in writing.

Conclusion

Employers have a duty of care to ensure their workers' safety when they are traveling for work, in essence.

Companies need to have thorough policies that cover both predicted and unanticipated hazards in order to protect the health and safety of their workers.

Workers take accountability for their actions by following travel guidelines and reducing risks by making wise decisions and acting appropriately.

Employers can control travel hazards, safeguard workers, and fulfill their legal requirements by being aware of their duty of care obligations.