http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41053740
Although the court recognised that he was not the mastermind behind it they cited his failure to speak out as one of the reasons for imposing a harsher sentence. By my reckoning, if they are going to give this engineer a harsh sentence then a large number of other engineers and managers are also up for some significant jail time (don't forget VW are not the only car maker caught out by this). Don't forget that within just a single design/project team:
- The initial requirements specification would have been signed off by multiple people.
- The code would have likely been authored by more than one engineer.
- The architecture and code would have been reviewed thoroughly and signed off by others who did not design or code it.
- There would have been a final engineering sign off by the chief engineer and/or the technical director prior to release for production.
- That is quite a number of people who could have spoken out but didn't (or they didn't do their jobs properly when reviewing and signing off)
My question is how many engineers (or non-engineers) wokring within a company have the confidence to speak out against something they feel is wrong or unethical without fear of retribution or even constructive dismissal?
I have so far only come across one employer (not directly automotive industry) that clearly has some explicit policies in place to encourage their people to feel that they can speak out and where retribution against an employee in any form is treated very seriously and could lead to dismissal. Clearly the emissions scandal is a wake up call for the automotive industry to change the way their companies operate. However, there is an opportunity for all companies with an engineering function to learn from this.
We all know that as engineers we have a duty to operate in an ethical manner but are we supported enough by engineering institutions globally to do that? What role can the engineering institutions and government play in helping to make it easier for engineers to speak up? Legal and government representation if an engineer is treated unfairly or even dismissed as a result of speaking out? What other tools could be made available to engineers by the engineering institutions (IET, Engineering Council, Royal Academy of Engineering, etc) to help them speak out more confidently without fear of retribution from their employer or line management?
