Should the Government order BP to pay Gulf Oil Cleanup Workers “Hazardous Duty Pay”?
Definitions: Hazardous Duty Pay can be defined as an increase in an employee’s normal salary as compensation for the performance of hazardous duty or work that involves extreme physical hardship and – or – exposure to high levels of danger that may cause illness or death. Hazardous Duty can be defined as work that causes extreme physical discomfort and distress which is not adequately alleviated by protective devices and is deemed to impose a physical hardship. In 1966 when the U.S. government first intervened on behalf of Americans and directed the tobacco industry to place warning labels on packs of cigarettes stating, “Cigarette Smoking May be Hazardous to Your Health”, the move was largely applauded by a newly health conscious nation that had always suspected that cigarette smoking was bad for one’s health. In doing so, the government under the leadership of then president Lyndon B. Johnson, promulgated that corporations, – in this case the tobacco industry – had a moral responsibi
