THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING

Essays on Ethics Support by Professional Societies and on Wrongful and Retaliatory Discharge

The Assault on IEEE Ethics Support by Stephen H. Unger.

An essay on the history of the IEEE professional ethics activities Including the IEEE Ethics Hotline

Why a State P.E. Board Should Enter an Amicus Curiae Brief in a Wrongful Discharge Case by Walter L. Elden.

This paper presents a strong argument as to why, in cases where a terminated licensed Professional Engineer alleges wrongful discharge in a suit against a former employer, his/her State or National P.E. Licensed Board should enter an Amicus Curiae (Friend of the Court) legal brief in the case. The basic premise is the obligation of the P.E. Board to protect the public, and not necessarily the P.E. directly. The author shows, however, that by a P.E. Board taking such Pro Active legal action, the result is the protection of the proper practice of engineering, thus protecting the public, with an indirect benefit to the P.E. Further, an engineer derives the right to practice ethically and should expect his/her professional engineering society to defend that right.

Curtailing Ethical Harassment by Walter L. Elden.

This essay discusses ethical harassment, the practice of punishing an employee for ethical behavior. This includes retaliatory discharge, in which an employee is dismissed for ethical behavior which violates the employer's instructions. Policies, or business goals.

Other sources

Steven Unger speaks about his book, Controlling Technology: Ethics and the Responsible Engineer:

"My book includes (pp. 182-184) an account of the Marvin Murray case(1974) in which an electrical engineer (probably not a P.E.) won a wrongful discharge suit in California after being fired and possibly blackballed when he urged his employer to correct design faults that made a telephone-related piece of equipment unsafe, in violation of safety codes. The jury awarded him about $20,000 in compensatory damages, and the case was not appealed. This is the only case of its type that I am aware of. The BART engineers received an out-of-court settlement of their wrongful discharge suit. There have been cases in which people (engineers Rick Parks and John Heneage, and marine biologist Morris Baslow) received out-of-court settlements after appeals to the Labor Department following discharges that violated specific laws prohibiting retaliation for actions in support of the missions of agencies such as the EPA and the NRC. There may very well be other cases of this latter type, and maybe some in which the cases were NOT settled out of court. The Joe Carson case is still ongoing. Another case that Walt is familiar with is that of Richard Robainas, which was in the appeals stage of a labor Department hearing. The last I heard, the Secretary of Labor had rejected the company's appeal of the DOL ruling in favor of Robainas (a nuclear engineer). Unfortunately, Robainas did not maintain contact with us, so I don't know the final outcome. I know of no situations in which the fact that an engineer was licensed played a significant role in the case."

Related Links

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Case Law: Professional Engineers from Professional Ethics & Wrongful Discharge by Ronald B. Standler

Examples of cases regarding public health and safety versus employers' orders.

The Monts Case:

Summary by David Monts. Electrical engineering David Monts was fired from a project for "continued disruption" of departmental meetings and a "negative attitude". Monts filed a law suit alleging he was actually trying to protect the public interest by pointing out several code violations.

NSPE's amicus brief on Monts' behalf

by Arthur Schwartz, NSPE General Counsel (March 2002). An example of how engineering societies may act to support ethical behavior of engineers.

National Academy of Engineering

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