Taking Over Monitoring Account / Anti Harassement And Retaliation Policy - May 22, 2013

 Question re take over monitoring account

Ken

    A customer is wanting to switch her monitoring Co. from her current one, to have us use our monitoring co. Is there a contract to use for this change.  Please advise, Thanks, 

P McCartney

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Answer

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    You should use the Standard Monitoring Contract and also a Disclaimer Notice.  Not because you are taking over an account, but because you are entering into what is likely your first relationship with this subscriber.  The requested service you will be providing is monitoring, so that's the contract you need.  

    Using the Disclaimer Notice is particularly important here because you didn't install the system and you don't mention that this subscriber is also signing up for inspection or repair servicing of the alarm system.  You will want to make note of that on the Disclaimer Notice because without inspection and service you have no responsibility to make any repairs; you just monitoring a signal if it happens to make its way to the central station.

    If you will be furnishing more than monitoring, such as service, inspection, remote access features, then you should be using the Residential All in One, assuming it's a residence.  On a take over the only part of the All in One you won't be using is the Sales / Installation part - and you will use that if you are installing any new equipment.

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Anti harrassement and retaliation policy

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Ken

    I operate an alarm/security company. My employment policies state that unprofessional, threatening and inappropriate conduct toward a client or fellow employee is strictly prohibited and will result in discipline.  I just suspended a worker for cursing at and pushing a co-worker, who he referred to using a racial slur.  The suspended worker is now making noises about filing a complaint with some government agencies, claiming that he was harassed while on my premises.   When I pointed out  that he signed my policy and knew the consequences for violating it, his answer was that, while he might have signed because he was told to, he doesn’t read English very well and didn’t know what he was signing.  He is from the Dominican Republic and his first language is Spanish.  Any thoughts?   

XR

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Answer

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    I turned this over to our Employment Law expert Judge Ruth Kraft.  Here is her response:

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    First, you did the right thing by suspending the worker if this is what is called for in your policy.  Since he has raised the possibility of harassment, you should protect your own interests by investigating; if the co-worker did, in fact, direct a racial slur toward him, then that worker should be disciplined as well.  

    In terms of understanding the policy, unfortunately, a signature isn’t enough.  Workers now raise the claim that they did not understand what they were signing.  I just returned from the annual meeting of the compliance officers’ association (it is held in conjunction with the International Business Ethics Case Competition, which I have been judging for the past nine years).  I was fascinated to learn that major corporations are now translating all of their employee-directed documents into up to 20 languages to pre-empt such claims.