Guild responds to ethics push

Journal Sentinel Inc. announced a new online ethics and harassment training program today.

As with similar ethics code efforts in the past, it continues to be the Guild's position that the terms and conditions of employment for bargaining-unit employees, including ethics standards, are governed by the collective bargaining agreement and past practice. We have negotiated ethics standards in Article 25 of our contract.

In addition, Articles 3 and 7 of our current contract expressly prohibit harassment. The Guild remains supportive of efforts to ensure our workplace is free of harassment.

Each bargaining-unit member should make his or her own decision on whether to view the training videos and click on the acknowledgment afterward. It's important to note that the acknowledgment does not require that an employee abide by the company's ethics code. The acknowledgment states in its entirety:

"I have viewed the Journal Communications Code of Ethics and Harassment training videos. If I experience or witness any unethical behavior or any sexual or other unlawful harassment in the workplace, I should report it immediately to my department manager, the Human Resources department, or senior vice president of Human Resources."

That is a change from previous company ethics code efforts.