Professional Conduct
In the conduct of their profession, professional ergonomists shall:
- Maintain at all times personal integrity, objectivity and respect for evidence.
- Not lay false claim to educational qualifications, professional affiliations, characteristics or capacities for themselves or their organizations.
- Refrain from making misleading, exaggerated or unjustified claims for the effectiveness of their methods, and they shall not advertise services in a way likely to encourage unrealistic expectations about the effectiveness and results of those services.
- Conduct themselves in their professional activities in ways which do not damage the interests of the recipients of their services or participants in their research and which do not undermine public confidence in their ability to perform their professional duties.
- Limit their practice to those areas of ergonomics for which they are qualified by virtue of training and/or experience, and endeavor to maintain and develop their professional competence. Any work taken outside the competence must be conducted only with proper professional supervision or they shall give every reasonable assistance towards obtaining the required services from those qualified to provide them.
- Always value the welfare of all persons affected by their work, protecting the privacy of individuals and organizations and follow ethical principles when conducting or reporting on research involving human participants.
- Not use race, ethnicity, disability, gender, sexual preference, age, religion, or national origin as a consideration in hiring, promoting, or training in any situation where such consideration is irrelevant.
- Avoid all situations that contain elements of conflict of interest, and provide full disclosure of those conflicts to all potentially affected parties.
- Take all reasonable steps to preserve the confidentiality of information acquired through their professional practice and to protect the privacy of individuals or organizations about whom the information was collected or held. Furthermore, they shall not divulge the identity of individuals or organizations without permission from those concerned.
- Neither solicit nor accept financial or material benefit from those receiving their services beyond what was contractually agreed. Furthermore, they shall not accept such rewards from more than one source for the same work without the consent of all parties concerned.
- When becoming aware of professional misconduct by a colleague, that is not resolved by discussion with the colleague concerned, they shall take steps to bring that misconduct to the attention of appropriate authorities in the professional organizations to which they belong.
- Take all reasonable steps to ensure that those working under their supervision act with full compliance to this code of conduct.