An employee also has their own rights when working. That’s why employers could get sued when they are treating their workers as slaves or if the treatment seems to be too unfair (e.g. low salary). These laws for employee rights also include benefits for getting the right health care, safety equipment, and procedures during an emergency or when handling hazardous objects, and regulations to prevent bullying. This article shall guide you in expanding all of these details for you to become familiar with employee rights, written as laws for the sake of your own benefit and safety at work.
What is Employment Law?
Employment law is capable of covering all of the rights and different responsibilities as employees interact with their respective employers. The law makes sure that it is updated regularly in order to cover every corner of the employer-employee relationship process and its various situations that may lead to an issue. There are numerous wrongful acts that may occur within an employer-employee relationship such as office politics, discrimination and wrongful means of promotion, termination, and improper means of providing taxes and wages. Employment law is ranged from job applicants down to former workers of a certain employer.
Basically, your employer must be legally responsible for keeping a safe environment for your employees, while granting them the right security and protection as they do their job. The employer should also protect the workers from any form of bullying and discrimination. It also gives them equal rights over the payment, workload and the conditions given to them.
At the same time, the employee must learn the different conditions set by their employer, which includes their terms and privacy, the monthly wage, hours of operation and work, break times and entitlement to take a leave. The employment law also requires workers to work according to their own health condition and safety, while keeping co-workers safe as well. It also advises employees to be aware and proactive if their employer is not providing their own responsibilities over their employees (e.g. office politics and improper management).
However, if the employer-employee relationship is based on a contractual basis, the contract law may be a better solution for this matter instead.
The Several Classifications Of Your Employee Rights
One’s employee rights are classified into different categories to further understand the overall scope of employment law. You can use these rights to your own advantage over certain issues that may affect your own career and status at your workplace. Here are the following:
Hiring Procedures
This gives you the rights to get hired accordingly to your skills and how you were actually evaluated during the interview. This also covers issues involving an improper interview due to an interviewer’s attitude towards the applicant. This also covers the rights of employees to be properly classified according to their overall capabilities as a worker.
Unfair Treatment
Unpaid wages are one of the worst cases of unfair treatment for employees. What’s worse is that these often occur in low-wage workplaces. Some instances are severe to the point where some employees are forced to work overtime while getting an underpaid service with no overtime bonuses at all. These cases should be handled immediately to ensure a fair means of working. These also include sudden cancellation or delay in providing an employee’s benefits or leave of absence.
Discrimination and Bullying
Any form of discrimination based on your disabilities, sex, age, race, and religion can be reported to a lawyer in order for them to legally handle it. Everyone as the right to work as an equal employee as they were hired because of their capability to work properly. On the other hand, bullying can lower a person’s morale at work and can cause them to become unproductive over time. It also placed unnecessary stress on an employee when they are bullied. That’s why cases of bullying must be immediately reported.
Harassment and Violence
There are more severe cases such as harassment where certain employees may help one another to bring a certain person down through severe bullying. One of the most alarming and common types of harassment is when higher-ups are pressuring certain employees, particularly women, to have sexual intercourse with them. Some even threaten the employee by using a certain word they used at work. All of these can be treated accordingly by the law as well.
Health and Safety
The workplace should be a safe environment. These will require the company to place notices on hazardous areas. Clinics should be provided at the offices to ensure that the employees can get immediate treatment when they get sick or when they got injured at work. Health care benefits should also be a top priority as an employee benefit as well. Accidents such as slipping and falling while on the job, resulting in injuries, can be reported to an attorney if the area appears to have a broken flooring or a wet one due to certain damage (e.g. water leakage from the ceiling). Blackstone Law states “falls usually causes traumatic brain injuries to patients and more than 30,000 fatalities every year”. That’s why even the cause of a simple slip down the floor must be handled immediately. Otherwise, the next one who may slip may get their head hit too hard on the floor, giving them a risk of sustaining a horrible injury. The workplace should also have surveillance and security in order to prevent any anomalous activities within the premises of the company.
Preventing Conspiracies and Creating Unions
Work unions are at risk of getting terminated especially if they are contradicting the ideals and favors of their bosses. However, if the union appears to be righteous for the sake of an employee’s benefit, then the union can get the assistance of the law in dealing with unfair employers. Collective actions and whistleblowing can be covered by the law to prevent any anomaly within the company and its business.
These are the several rights that are completely covered by employment laws. It is extremely important for every worker to understand all of these because these are their actual advantage. It’s understood that only a few will have the time to read all of these. But anyone who reached the end of this article is now capable of showing their right. These should be learned immediately because we simply want to work to get a stable income in the first place, not experience issues not related to your workload.