NEWS: Companies start clamping down on employees' in-car cell phone use

December 24, 2007
Lancaster Eagle-Gazette Lancaster, OH

LANCASTER - Dominc Prunte, vice president of Human Resources at Fairfield Medical Center, never considered employees talking on cell phones while driving as posing any threat to the hospital.

But a trend around the country has led to more companies barring employees from talking on cell phones while driving. As more and more companies put those bans into employee handbooks, Prunte said he might be taking a second look at the hospital's policy on cell phone use.

"I think it might be a good move on companies' part because it only takes one accident to cause a huge issue claim," Prunte said. "If it's on company time, then it's a worker's compensation claim, and it still falls back on (the company)."

Some employers see the new cell phone rules outlined in employee handbooks as sensible extensions of workplace safety.

"We felt cell phone use while driving was a fairly dangerous behavior," said Mike Henderek, manager of safety programs for ExxonMobil, which banned its 88,000 employees from using cell phones while driving on company time on June 1.

ExxonMobil adopted the policy after assigning its own scientists to dissect the issue.

"The results verified that, while hands-free seems intuitively the right thing to do in terms of safety, it doesn't deliver significant benefit over hand-held," Henderek said. "It's the mind that becomes engaged in conversation and becomes distracted."

But a different concern is prompting employers to clamp down on vehicular cell phone use: lawsuits that blame employers for accidents and mayhem caused by their phone-clutching road warriors.

Some cases have resulted in large payouts:

In Miami, a jury awarded a woman $20.9 million in 2001 after she was injured in an auto accident caused by a salesman making a cell phone call between appointments. The insurer for the salesman's employer picked up the settled final tab: $16 million on behalf of the company and $100,000 for its salesman.

In Pennsylvania, Smith Barney agreed to pay $500,000 in 1999 to settle a fatal auto accident claim involving one of its salesmen. He dropped his cell phone while driving and, as he reached for it, ran a red light and killed a 24-year-old man on a motorcycle. The stockbroker had tried to make a sales call or two before arriving at a restaurant for dinner. Smith Barney settled.
Robert Braun, a human resources and labor-relations consultant in Seattle, said he has helped write cell phone-use policies for more than 20 clients.

Policies that specifically govern employee use of cell phones, he said, can serve as a vaccination against lawsuits.

Prunte said, personally, it drives him crazy to see people on their cell phones and not paying attention.

He said the hospital has a policy prohibiting personal calls on desk telephones and cell phones unless it's an emergency.

Staff can are allowed to use cell phones on their breaks. But Prunte said he never considered revising the policy to ban use while driving on company time.

Prunte said FMC has 2007 employees. About 3 percent of those employees - home-care department nurses and couriers or delivery workers - drive on company time on a regular basis.

Prunte said staff always have considered cell phones as "an advantage to take care of patients in a more timely fashion", especially when home-care nurses are out and about making visits.

"But if you're driving, it can be an issue," he said. "I think it's a good thing to look at. We haven't thought about it, but it's something to seriously look at."

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