Newly hired as a production engineer, you find a potential problem on the shop floor: workers are routinely ignoring some of the government-mandated safety regulations governing the presses and stamping machines.

The workers override safety features such as guards designed to make it impossible to insert a hand or arm into a machine. Or they rig up "convenience" controls so they can operate a machine while close to it, instead of using approved safe switches, etc., which requires more movement or operational steps.Their reason (or excuse) is that if the safety features were strictly followed then production would be very difficult, tiring and inefficient. They feel that their shortcuts still provide adequately safe operation with improved efficiency and worker satisfaction.

Should you immediately insist on full compliance with all the safety regulations, or do the workers have enough of a case so that you would be tempted to ignore the safety violations? And if you were tempted to ignore the violations, how would you justify doing so to your boss?

Also, how much weight should you give to the workers' clear preference for not following the regulations: ethically, can safety standards be relaxed if those to whom they apply want them to be relaxed?