How do we know when our behaviour is ethical or not? Sometimes it’s clear: you’re given a twenty dollar note instead of a ten dollar note as change at the greengrocers; you notice as it’s being handed to you; to keep it would be, in effect, lying; we know it's unethical.

But what about in the workplace? Imagine your manager asks you to investigate a worker’s injury that you’re sure is work-related and doing the investigation is going to damage your partnership with the employee.

Or the manager wants you to give him details about the worker's injury, but you are concerned you might be breaching the employee's privacy by giving the manager the information he wants.  

Where can return to work coordinators turn for guidance in doing the best job they can?

Layla* has felt the need for a code of ethics in her work as a return to work coordinator – so much so that at one workplace she developed her own set of ethics to help. “I think with ethics in return to work there’s a real issue around the fact that [the return to work coordinator is] seen as a support person for the injured worker, but you’re also paid by the employer and performing a role for the employer – there’s a real issue around balancing those dynamics.”

Like many working as return to work coordinators or in the workers’ compensation system, the role was an addition to her existing work, and she felt a lack of training in how best to approach the ill or injured individual to best guide them through the system and back to work. “The role was thrown at me as part of my role in HR, it was one component of what I did. I did a two-day course on workers’ compensation and that was a good grounding in terms of an understanding of the legislation, but we never really did anything in terms of how to work with the injured worker.”

Layla describes her manager at the time as being “pretty good 95% of the time” in terms of behaving in a way she deemed to be ethical; but for that 5% she felt she had no document or guidelines to turn to for backup. “I really struggled with how to deal with that,” she said.

“It was hard. On one side I had a manager saying ‘investigate’ due to the manager having black-listed the worker for previous misdemeanors, they knew them personally or they didn’t believe that type of injury was caused by work or work related, then I was having to go and work with the injured worker – it’s very difficult.”

So she developed a document in which she applied ethics. She attended a workshop on ethical behaviour, “and from that moment on I thought right, we’re changing the way that we do workers’ compensation from this moment on.”

The document was to help her and her workplace better understand their ethical responsibilities towards injured workers; this understanding, she believes, helps in setting up relationships with injured workers as well as determining how to behave with key people in your workplace, such as supervisors or managers.

“I set up a one-page document and I would then meet with a person and go through what actually happens when you put in a claim and what my role is and what their roles is,” she said.  She began to inform workers from the get-go that, “I will provide you with all the information and I will support you through this process, but I’m also employed like you,” so in terms of advocacy or disputing a claim, “the worker really needs to have an alternate support person.” 

“I had to work out a way that I could be ethical, which from my point of view was being very open and transparent about the info that was provided to the injured workers so they had a good knowledge and understanding of what happens when you have a workers’ compensation claim,” Layla said.

Outcomes for the injured worker are better with a code of ethics, said Layla. “As a return to work coordinator you’ve got to balance that line between working for the employer and assisting the injured workers, and if in that role you’re being driven the whole time by the employer and only by them, you’re actually being unethical.”

A code, she said, makes it easier for those involved in the workers’ compensation system to say “Hey, this is what I have to do, this is what I have to work to.” She also believes people in the system using a code might start to feel better about the work they’re doing. With better employee outcomes, better relationships between workers, return to work coordinators and supervisors/management, and more ethical treatment of those within a sometimes acrimonious and unfriendly system, it’s easy to believe she is right.
 
*Not her real name