Introduction
Employment law is a body which governs the relationship between employers and employees. It involves application of tort and contract doctrines with a number of statutory regulations (Covington, 2009).This issues include the rights to negotiate and organize collective bargaining agreements, protection from harsh working conditions,safety and health issues.
Why is it important to have employment law in the workplace?
Employment law plays a significant role in ensuring that the rights and interest of both the employees and employer are met successfully (Braithwaite& Drahos, 2000). Compliance to this benefit creates a viable working envoronment not only to the employer versus employee but also to the business society, in general. Significance of employment law include:
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This is the most awful form of discrimination experiences that employees would protract in a workplace. If the jury reaffirms that the discrimination was reasonably a criminal case, the legal officials would procedurally take charge to ensure that the employer faces the law (Covington, 2009).
Workplace harassment
Employee harassment includes bullying, offensive jokes, intimidation, insults, circulating offending materials as well as public humiliation to an employee. Workplace harassment is against the ethics and code of conduct in any business setup. It greatly affects and kills the employees working spirit. As a result, their poor performance would economically lower the the firm productivity (Twomey, 2010).
Work refusal
This is a situation whereby employees, in unison, deliberately refuse to work due to unreasonable issues. This greatly affects employers and the business in general due to the large losses incurred at that particular moment. Important to note is that, this applies when the causes of work refusal are not
In 1980, a precedent was set in a Michigan court case involving a man named Charles Toussaint who was suing his employer, BlueCross Blue Shield, for wrongful termination based on the guidelines set in the employee manual (Alfred and Bertsche 33). The manual stated that employees would only be terminated for just cause, and the court decided that Blue Cross had violated the agreements in the employee manual (34). The court also ruled that even with Blue Cross’s efforts to provide a document that “issued non-binding guidelines” the employee manual was a contract and Toussiant was wrongfully terminated (34). After the precedent set by this case many employers and employees for that matter were reviewing their employee manuals for the type of ambiguous language that could allow them to get sued or sue. Consequently, a slew of wrongful termination lawsuits followed this one, which is why it is now important for employers to draft their manuals with experienced legal staff. Even with the best legal team and the perfect wording there is still no definite assurance that an employer will be completely protected from such lawsuits, but taking these preventive measures helps in the long run.
Moran, J. J. (2008). Employment law: New challenges in the business environment. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Bennett-Alexander, Dawn D. & Hartman, Laura P. (2001). Employment Law for Business (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Primis Custom Publishing. Downloaded February 4, 2008 from the data base of http://www.eeoc.gov
In this paper, I will cover the employment-at-will doctrine, cover three scenarios with actions that the Chief Operating Officer (COO) can take to resolve the problems in the scenarios. Also, cover my state’s employment -at-will doctrine and provide an example of a recent situation that has happened in the last five years.
Bennett, Alexander, Hartman (2003), Employment Law for Business, Fourth Edition I., The Regulation of the Employment Relationship, The McGraw-Hill Companies.
Workplace bullying is defined as any as any type of repetitive abuse in which the victim of the bullying behaviour suffers verbal abuse, threats, humiliating or intimidating behaviours, or behaviours that interfere with his or her job performance and are meant to place at risk the health and safety of the victim (Murray, 2009). Bullying can take many forms, some blatant, others more subtle. Researchers ha...
Primarily, the employee was in violation of federal laws, which protect employees regarding slanderous or racially remarks. According to Title VII, it is...
complying to laws that address unlawful actions in the workforce, many issues still need to be
Commission for Labor Cooperation (2002) “ United States Labor Law.” Viewed online on 11/18/2004 at http://www.naalc.org/english/publications/labormain.htm
... includes acts protecting most of employees. Besides, there is an enforcement practice of these acts by courts, arbitration courts and governmental institutions (EEOC). The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission plays an important role in protecting employees’ rights. A thorough study of the cases carried out in this work proves that the USA has a well-balanced anti-discrimination system.
A negative work environment can make employees feel irritable, anxious and defensive. This can cause poor productivity, lack of motivation and poor communication in the workplace which in turn can cause problems for the company. An employer’s abuse of power can cause mental or emotional distress on employees and also disrupt the workplace. Examples of employers abusing their position include humiliation, undermining, disrespectful language, discriminatory comments, yelling and intimidation. When employees are surrounded by this on a daily basis it can affect their self-worth. Employers can resolve these issues by allowing open lines of communication and by not giving employees the impression that it is acceptable to act negatively and disrespect fellow employees.
Labour and Employment Law. Cincinnati, OH: South-Western Publishing Company.
In collective bargaining, employers too are stakeholders and ensuring that their interests are not compromised is important. Particularly, this is the case when the employees’ interests are conflicting with those of the employers. For example, a demand for shorter working hours by the workers would compromise the interests of the employer to enhancing productivity, which is part of their management mandate. In the collective bargaining agreement, some of the employers’ interests covered include managerial responsibility, safety standards, and disciplinary responsibility (Budd 11). The issue of employers’ rights is crucial to collective bargaining agreements because of the nature of the employer-employee relationship. Notably, collective bargaining is primarily based on strengthening or managing this relationship to the satisfaction of all parties. Therefore, without ensuring that the rights and responsibilities of each party are clearly stipulated in the collective bargaining agreement, the risk of one party’s interests being met at the expense of the other is real. A good example of how the issue of employer rights is featured in collective bargaining agreement occurred at one of the General Motors plants in Tonawanda where the management and workers agreed to work as partners rather than as antagonists (Pritchard Para
Behavior that is considered harassment include, but are not limited to, threats, intimidation, derogatory statements, malicious statements, or any inappropriate, unwelcome, physical or verbal advances, that foster a hostile work environment for the person on the receiving end of the harassing words or actions.
Legal considerations play an important role in how employers and employees interact in the workplace. Common-law doctrines regarding this relationship have been established from many legal decisions made over the course of centuries (Reed & Bogardus, 2012). Common-law doctrines lay the foundation for best practices in employment which provide for both employer and employee safeguards.