Mid-Term Key Lecture Notes - Employment Law

Mid-Term Key Lecture Notes- Employment Law: Workplace Safety, Discrimination, Termination Workplace Safety 1. In employment law, workplace safety is an extremely imperative factor that aims at keeping employees’ healthy. It shall be noted that according to the legal requirements, every employer has the responsibility to ensure his employees’ safety at the workplace. - employees’ working conditions and environment will not expose them or place them at any avoidable risk. 2. major government organization that oversees the formulation and implementation of safety standards in America/Canada is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or OSHA. - OSHA is responsible for establishing and implementing mandatory and advise safety and health requirements, conducting workplace safety and health training, educational activities and promoting work-related safety and health enhancement. 3. Employees must abide by safety measures that are required based on the nature of the business. - there is a difference in safety measures of construction sites than that of offices. 4. Some of the precautionary measures that are commonly followed are that the flammable items have proper markings and they are stored in appropriate areas and there are means to issue safety gears like helmets, gloves, masks and shields to the employees if required and fire drills are conducted periodically and machines or tools are in proper working conditions etc. 5. Noncompliance with these regulations impacts gravely with penalties that may even warrant legal consequences such as fines. Discrimination ● Prejudice in the workplace is unlawful under provisions of federal and state laws. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a federal law that outlaws discrimination ● ● in the workplace that falls under the categories of race, colour, religion, gender or national origin. Other federal statues are the Age discrimination in employment act (ADEA), which covers the aged employees who are forty years of age and above and the Americans with disabilities act (ADA) that does not allow discrimination against employees with disabilities. Some of the things that are manifested by employment discriminations include hiring, firing, promotions, job assignments, and even remunerations. - It can also present itself through harassment at workplace, as defined by creation of a hostile environment or making a series of remarks which are unwanted and of a sexual nature. - It imposes some duties on employers to act in a way that avoids discriminations of any form, individuals’ complaints ought to be dealt with in a proper and efficient manner. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is the commission where employees, who have reason to believe that theyhave been discriminated in their workplace, can file their complaint. ● The EEOC addresses the discrimination grievances and it can prosecute if the situations call for it. ● Some possible remedies which can be awarded in discrimination cases are deemed wages or back pay, reemployment, and compensatory damages. Termination ● Employment can be terminated under several circumstances, and the laws regulates the dumping or firing process for employers’ as well as employees’ sides. ● The majority of the employment relationships in the United States is what is referred to as ‘employment at will,’ meaning that the employment relationship can be terminated by either party, the employee or the employer at any time. These are the unlawful grounds for dismissal: discrimination, retaliation, violation of public policy, and breach of contract. For example, an employee cannot be dismissed by his/her employer because of his/her color, sexual orientation or those who report the company about detrimental working conditions. - Retaliation involves an employer’s action against an employee for exercising their rights as protected under the law or exercising their rights when whistleblowing or even participating in an investigation. Several measures can be taken by the employers in order to stay away from the matters related to law, one of them is that the employers must use proper and reasonable procedure while relieving the employees from their services. - This encompasses giving causal reasons for dismissal, recording the performance problems, and affording the employee the chance to improve.