Yahoo Finance FedEx workers at Indianapolis shooting weren't allowed to have their phones: Is that OK?
INDIANAPOLIS — Jose Lopez sat in a Holiday Inn Express for hours waiting for news of his friend at the nearby FedEx facility here, where a gunman killed eight people late Thursday night.
“It is hard because if my friend had a phone, he would be able to contact me right away,” said Lopez, who has worked at the facility for about six months. “Even if it’s a message with one letter, you know he is living.”
FedEx prohibits employees from having their phones with them while they are working, a policy that came under scrutiny in the aftermath of the mass shooting at the company's Ground Plainfield Operations Center that resulted in the fatalities and left dozens of families scrambling to get in touch with loved ones.
On Saturday, a FedEx spokesman told the USA TODAY Network's Indianapolis Star that the company has no plans to change its policy banning cellphones in its sorting and packaging plants, which some shipping consultants said is the right approach.
"Our cell phone policy is based on workplace safety considerations and we believe continues to be in the best interests of our team members while they are on duty,” FedEx spokesman Chris Allen said in a written statement Saturday to IndyStar, declining to elaborate or say whether other security precautions are being reviewed.
The company doesn't allow workers, except for "authorized team members," Allen said, to bring phones in the FedEx ground facility near the Indianapolis International Airport where Thursday's shooting occurred.
The no-phone policy forced many family members and friends to wait overnight in a packed Holiday Inn Express to find out if their loved ones were hurt or killed.
If employees were allowed to have their phones, the “police wouldn’t be flooded with calls and family members also wouldn’t be flooded with calls and there would be more news, more details,” Lopez said.
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Deaths make 'a statement' about bans
Lopez noted phones could cause a distraction during work hours but said employees should be able to have their phones with them, even if they can't use them during work.
“A policy of not having a phone in the workplace — a situation like this makes a statement," he said.
It is not uncommon for employers to ban cellphone use in certain situations, including when doing so could compromise their safety, such as operating vehicles or heavy machinery.
What the law says about phone bans
In other cases, workers may be prohibited from using their cellphones while interacting with customers or while attending meetings, according to jobs site Indeed. Those sorts of bans are legal, according to the National Labor Relations Board.
But it's not clear whether bans on having cellphones on your person at work are common or legal.
"Some might say cellphones help save lives in the workplace, especially in an emergency," personal injury liability attorney Mark Litton wrote in a recent analysis. "While having a phone on hand is indeed helpful in those cases, there's a difference between allowing workers to have cell phones, and allowing them to use it for anything other than an emergency."
The National Labor Relations Board has generally held that employees have a right to use their cellphones for personal use at the workplace when they're not on the clock, such as when on breaks.
In a recent memo in a case involving an alarm monitoring company, the board ruled that the California-based company's policy banning cellphone use except for “work-related or critical, quality of life activities" was "unlawful."
Claiming lost productivity
The company, known as P1, had banned phones based on the premise that they were a “distraction in the workplace,” resulting in “lost time and productivity." The ban included text messaging and digital photography.
"Although the employer has a legitimate interest in preventing distractions, lost time, and lost productivity, that interest is only relevant when employees are on work time," the NLRB wrote.
One workplace expert says in the wake of the FedEx shooting in Indianapolis, it would not be surprising if such a ban may get tested legally.
"This incident might very well open the doors to see what happens in a courtroom," said Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute, a nonprofit that seeks to improve the legal protection of human rights in the workplace. Maltby said some FedEx employees might consider filing a class-action lawsuit in response to the shooting.
Olivia Thla Sui, another FedEx employee who worked Thursday night, said employees had to leave their phones in the locker room.
"We don't know when this stuff can happen," she said. " It was hard to get in touch with family members saying they're OK and stuff."
Maltby, a former employee rights director for the American Civil Liberties Union, believes that FedEx management should consider changing its policy and work closely with its employees to reach common ground.
"This is not as simple as they drop this rule. They need to find a better a rule that’s a bit broader for its employees," Maltby said. "This rule is the wrong solution. Ignoring the problem is the wrong solution. There is a right solution out there, they just need to come together to figure it out."
Follow Indianapolis Star reporter Binghui Huang on Twitter @Binghuihuang and USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis FedEx shooting: Workers criticize no-cell-phone policy
