This disciplinary procedure was stated under the employment act of 2002.
Once a technician is employed they receive a set of requirements, they must be able to apply their knowledge of science to the facility they are working for, for instance to experiments being carried out and any stock which need to ordered. As stated in task one the members of the technician’s team must also be able to communicate with each other to make sure all aspects of their work is being carried out correctly. However a technicians main duty are stated below,
- Carrying out requests from lecturers
- Inventory and checking there is enough stock available
- Making solutions for future experiments
- Caring for living organisms which are part of experiments being carried out
- Repairing and making equipment for experiments
- Ordering stock
However these tasks stated are only given to technicians working in a school or college environment. As stated in a job description of a Science Technician working within a laboratory (see appendix) the main function of a scientific laboratory technician is to perform specific scientific procedures that allow scientists above them to perform more complex analytical processes within in that lab.
When working for a company or an organisation the technicians must follow the HSAW and COSHH regulations which state that all technicians must work in a safe and cautious manner. To ensure this a Health and Safety Executive inspector can be sent to that place of work to assess each person and to make sure they are carrying out all regulations. If it is found that they are not carrying out any of these regulations correctly the inspector will have the authority to shut down the whole organisation and state that it is unsafe to work in.
The technician will also be charge of storage, this will involve storing all hazardous chemicals which if misplaced will result in an accident however this can only take place in the small amount of room that they are allocated.
If a lecturer wishes to carry out an experiment they will firstly need to contact a technician to arrange for the equipment to be organised and given to them. However this can sometimes go wrong so a strict set of rules have been given to ensure that this will go smoothly.
- If a lecturer wishes to carry out an experiment they must first fill out a form stating which equipment will be needed. They will also need to fill out a risk assessment identifying all possible harmful risks which could occur.
- The technician will then be able to collect all equipment and chemicals stated in the list.
If the equipment or chemicals were not in stock the technician would be in charge of ordering in the stock from outside companies.
- The technician will shop around each catalogue in order to find the best deal
- They will then fill out an order form which will be sent off to a finance department where they will decide if they can afford the required equipment, if so the finance department will check over the order form and send it back with approval.
- The technician will then place the official order with the chosen company.
The technician will then be in charge of disposing of any waste from all the experiments that occurred that day. All bacterial waste will be sterilised and burned down using an incinerator which will be at an optimum temperature between 700ºc and 1000ºc which will then allow the technicians to dispose the waste in an ordinary bin. All organic waste will be placed into 2.5 litre bottles as it cannot be mixed with water, the bottles containing the organic waste will then be collected by a specialised company for disposing of.
Current Employment Laws
All employment laws are devised to guide each employer on how to treat their employees and how to protect both employees and employers.
For instance an employer cannot wrongfully sack one of their employees, for example not stating a reason why they have sacked that person. If an employee is sacked without a correct reason or wrongful dismissal they can take the company to court which will eventually take money out of the company and give this to the employee, this is also covered by the employment laws. As for working a scientific area all employers must note all hazards which could occur and state all the safety guidelines which must strictly be followed in order to prevent a risk of any accident.
Current employment laws state that each member of staff are allowed are series of rights whilst working in a work place. These rights would include:
- Redundancy Pay- which will allow the members of staff to receive an amount of money if the business were to close down.
- Minimum Wage Levels 2005 - This states that all members of staff cannot be unfairly paid, the minimum wage levels were started to ensure all members of staff were to receive similar wages. The current minimum wage level is at £5.05 were over 21 workers however under 18 receive £4.25.
- Maternity Leave- This ensures that no business is allowed to dismiss a worker if that worker was to become pregnant. All members of staff are entitled to maternity leave to care for their new child. All mothers are allowed to take up to 18 weeks maternity leave in which they will receive maternity pay.
- Working Time Regulations 1998- All workers are entitled to an annual leave and rest breaks if they are working a maximum 48 hour week. If workers are working a maximum of 6 hours a day they will be entitled to a 20 minute break.
A place of work is also in charge of making that place of work safe and making the staff working for them happy and pleased to working for that company. This is covered by the legislations.
Legislations concerning the workplace
In order to ensure a workplace is treating their employees are being treated correctly without any prejudice many legislations have been put in place to ensure this. These laws have been created by the government regarding employment, some of the categories that are being stopped by these legislations can be found below,
- Sexual Discrimination 1975
- Disability Discrimination 1995
- Religious Discrimination 2003
- Racial Discrimination 1976
- Ageism 2006
- Sexuality Discrimination 2003
In a workplace it is important to have these legislations and rules in order for every employee to feel no discrimination for being different to anyone else. If it shown that there is discrimination being allowed to take place in the workplace the person carrying out the discrimination may be sacked for the person responsible for that person may also be punished.
Sections of these legislations can be found below.
Sexual Discrimination 1975
Discrimination by employers
6.-(1) It is unlawful for a person, in relation to employment by him at an establishment in Great Britain, to discriminate against a woman-
(a) in the arrangements he makes for the purpose of determining who should be offered that employment, or
(b) in the terms on which he offers her that employment, (c) by refusing or deliberately omitting to offer her employment.
(2) It is unlawful for a person, in the case of a woman employed by him at an establishment in Great Britain, to discriminate against her-
(a) in the way he affords her access to opportunities for promotion, transfer or training, or to any other benefits, facilities or services, or by refusing or deliberately omitting to afford her access to them, or
(b) by dismissing her, or subjecting her to any other detriment.
Disability Discrimination 1995
(1) It is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a disabled person—
(a) in the arrangements which he makes for the purpose of determining to whom he should offer employment;
(b) in the terms on which he offers that person employment; or
(c) by refusing to offer, or deliberately not offering, him employment.
(2) It is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a disabled person whom he employs—
(a) in the terms of employment which he affords him;
(b) in the opportunities which he affords him for promotion, a transfer, training or receiving any other benefit;
(c) by refusing to afford him, or deliberately not affording him, any such opportunity; or
(d) by dismissing him, or subjecting him to any other detriment.
Religious Discrimination 2003
- Employers may not treat employees or applicants more or less favorably because of their religious beliefs or practices - except to the extent a religious accommodation is warranted. For example, an employer may not refuse to hire individuals of a certain religion, may not impose stricter promotion requirements for persons of a certain religion, and may not impose more or different work requirements on an employee because of that employee's religious beliefs or practices.
- Employees cannot be forced to participate -- or not participate -- in a religious activity as a condition of employment.
Racial Discrimination 1976
It is unlawful for an employer or a acting or purporting to act on behalf of an employer:
(a)
to refuse or fail to employ a second on work of any description which is available and for which that second is qualified;
(b)
to refuse or fail to offer or afford a second the same terms of employment, conditions of work and opportunities for training and promotion as are made available for other having the same qualifications and employed in the same circumstances on work of the same description; or
to dismiss a second from his or her employment;
by reason of the race, colour or national or ethnic origin of that second or of any relative or associate of that second .
Sexuality Discrimination 2003
It is unlawful for an employer, in relation to employment by him at an establishment in Great Britain, to discriminate against a person -
(a) in the arrangements he makes for the purpose of determining to whom he should offer employment;
(b) in the terms on which he offers that person employment; or
(c) by refusing to offer, or deliberately not offering, him employment.
(2) It is unlawful for an employer, in relation to a person whom he employs at an establishment in Great Britain, to discriminate against that person -
(a) in the terms of employment which he affords him;
(b) in the opportunities which he affords him for promotion, a transfer, training, or receiving any other benefit;
(c) by refusing to afford him, or deliberately not affording him, any such opportunity; or
(d) by dismissing him, or subjecting him to any other detriment.