Business
Employment Law
Employment law encompasses the legal framework governing the relationship between employers and employees. It covers areas such as hiring, wages, working conditions, discrimination, and termination. Compliance with employment law is crucial for businesses to ensure fair treatment of employees and avoid legal disputes.
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7 Key excerpts on "Employment Law"
- David K. Hayes, Jack D. Ninemeier(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
The now-accepted concept that the rights of female employees should be equal to those accorded to men was certainly not the norm in the 1800s. (Recall that it was 1920 before women in the United States gained the right to vote!) In other cases, the views of what constitutes fairness in employment may vary greatly among citizens of individual countries, states, or cities. Not surprisingly, then, various types of employ- ment laws are likely to be enacted in those jurisdictions. As a result, hospitality managers must be keenly aware of the individual Employment Laws that directly affect them, their operations, and their employees. In some cases the laws directly related to employment in the hospitality industry are gen- eral (e.g., the federal laws in the United States relating to the rights of workers to unionize). In other cases the laws related to employment may best be understood in the context of a particu- lar segment of HR management. Therefore laws related specifically to employee recruiting (see chapter 4), compensation (see chapter 8), performance appraisal (see chapter 9), and employee health and safety (see chapter 10) and labor unions (chapter 11) are closely examined in those individual chapters. Hospitality managers, even those working full time in HR management, are not expected to be attorneys. A lack of understanding about HR-related law, however, can easily produce prob- lems that result in those managers requiring the services of a qualified attorney. Experienced managers know that lawsuits and litigation are expensive and time-consuming. Most would also agree that the negative publicity associated with highly publicized lawsuits can be a real detriment Employment Law: The body of laws, administrative rulings, and precedents that addresses the legal rights of workers and their employers. Jurisdiction: The geographic area over which a legal authority extends.
eBook - PDF- Frank Bott, Allison Coleman, Allison Coleman, Diane Rowland(Authors)
- 2000(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
Chapter 7 The framework of employee relations law and changing management practices 7.1 Employee relations Employee relations is about the rules governing employment. Since people are employed to produce goods or services and such production entails a process, we may further say that employee relations is about the rules govern-ing the work process. W hat sort of rules are we talking about? Little can be inferred from the individual contract of employment. It is a contract of service entailing a duty to perform that service in return for payment of wages or salary. However, because the precise form of work performance or service (including the degree of effort) cannot be specified in advance, the employment contract is inescap-ably open-ended. On the other hand, there is a statutory obligation for the employer to provide a written statement of the main terms and conditions of employment -a duty extended by the Trade Union Reform and Employment Relations Act of 1993, as a result of the Proof of Employment Relationship Directive of 1991. Because the contract of employment is, rightly or wrongly, so central in British Employment Law, in the event of disputes, the courts may deem certain terms to be implied by the contract. The normal state of affairs, then, is for the employer, and, by extension, the management acting as agent for the employing organization, to decide the terms and conditions -or rules -of employment. These rules include any-thing from pay and normal hours of work to health and safety rules. Establishing rules and procedures remains one of the main ways that manage-ment exercises responsibility for the control of the work process. Management is about control. Control necessitates effective organization of the work pro-cess by the use of established procedures but also the ability to improvise by gaining the co-operation of employees.
eBook - PDF- Paul Bates(Author)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Goodfellow Publishers(Publisher)
8 Employment Law Employment Law is a big element in most, if not all, first-year business law courses. This area is best approached by viewing it as being split into two sections. The first section concerns the nature of the agreement between the employer and the employee. This forms a contract (the contract of employ-ment), so your knowledge of general contract law is useful to you here – including express and implied terms in contracts, etc. The second section concerns the very many rules surrounding such things as the difference between unfair and unlawful dismissal, what may happen if you’re subject to redundancy, and so on. Most of this area is now governed by statutes, of which the most important is the Employment Act 1966. Disputes are generally heard by Employment Tribunals rather than a standard civil court. Disputes within the area of Employment Law may involve the use of case law in a civil court regarding such areas as breach of your contract of employment, or the application of statutory law by an employment tribunal. The first section, concerning the type of contractual relationship you may have (or not have) with your employer, is the area where you’re most likely to be asked to produce an essay or answer a longer written question in an exam. This is where you have to know some case law. As always, the more you know the better. The second section is, by the nature of the many different rules and regulations involved, the area which is most suited to multiple choice ques-tions. Here unfortunately, you just have to keep reading and re-reading the information and hoping you’ve managed to remember enough facts which may come up in an MCQ exam for you to do well. I hate to have to say this but MCQs are really not much more than a memory test… Most law lecturers, for reasons given in an earlier chapter, are likely to give you some hints about which areas to concentrate for the longer questions in the exam but it’s difficult to give hints about MCQs.
eBook - ePubManaging People
A Practical Guide for Front-line Managers
- Rosemary Thomson, Eileen Arney, Andrew Thomson(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
9 The regulation of behaviour at work IntroductionIn this chapter we deal with the implications for managing people of the legal system and the institutions that complement it. Over the last 50 years Employment Law has become one of the most complex and regularly modified parts of the legal system, and also one of the most politically contentious, because law is an important source of power in the employment relationship. Managers not infrequently have to face situations which could have legal consequences; most of course do not result in any drastic development, which is just as well if work is to have continuity and stability, but managers need to be aware of what might be involved in a given situation. It cannot be overstated that the best way of avoiding any problem is for managers themselves to be aware of the principles of the law, if not the details. At the organisational level there are likely to be rules that will have legal consequences and managers need to be aware of the implications of these.Many larger organisations employ specialist staff to deal with personnel-related matters and it is their responsibility to keep up to date with the many and frequent changes in the law. This is quite a daunting task even for experts. However, even in organisations with this facility, the front-line manager is likely to be the initial person involved in any formal grievance or disciplinary matters. On a day-to-day basis, you may have to deal with the first signs of trouble and, if there is no handy personnel department, with subsequent action. In many cases, it is the front-line manager’s responsibility to deal with cases of grievance or to become involved in disciplinary action when this becomes inevitable; it is also his or her responsibility to offer help and advice to staff who have work-related problems and, where necessary, to recommend that they seek professional advice, possibly from the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas).
eBook - PDF- Raymond J. Stone, Anne Cox, Mihajla Gavin(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
CHAPTER 4 Human resource management and the law LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this chapter, you should be able to: 4.1 understand the importance of the law as it relates to HRM and distinguish between an employee and an independent contractor 4.2 identify the sources of legal obligations in Employment Law, understand the importance of the contract of employment and its essential terms, and recognise the amendments to the federal legislation by the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cwlth) (Fair Work Act) 4.3 identify the legal requirements at various stages of employee recruitment and selection 4.4 understand the legal issues for HR professionals during employment 4.5 discuss the procedures for terminating employees and understand an employee’s rights of review upon dismissal. Pdf_Folio:123 4.1 HRM and the law LEARNING OBJECTIVE 4.1 Understand the importance of the law as it relates to HRM and distinguish between an employee and an independent contractor. Successful HR managers must be familiar with the numerous legal issues that govern the employer/em- ployee relationship. At its broadest level, the HR profession needs to be familiar with what is termed ‘labour law’. Labour law incorporates the law of employment, which governs the individual contract that all employees have with their employer. It also includes industrial law, which regulates the manner in which employees, as a collective group, relate with employers, or groups of employers. While it is beyond the scope of this chapter to provide an exhaustive analysis of labour law, what follows is an attempt to address the impact of legislation and the important legal issues that are faced daily by HR practitioners. Employee or contractor A critical determination is whether the provider of services in the form of work acts as an employee or as an independent contractor.
eBook - PDF- Jon Merrills, Jonathan Fisher(Authors)
- 2006(Publication Date)
- Elsevier Science(Publisher)
Chapter 30 Employment Law The contract of employment A pharmacist needs to be aware of the basic principles of Employment Law. He may employ members of staff, perhaps a locum pharmacist, dispenser or shop assistant; or alternatively he may himself be an employee of a limited company, sole trader or partnership. A contract of employment is approached legally in the same way as any other commercial contract. Over the years, however, there have developed particular reg-ulations relating to the formation of such a contract, the conditions of service and termination of the contract. Much of the law in this area is contained in the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA), though some common law rules remain. Thus contracts of employment are subject to rigorous controls from the beginning to the end of the employment. The rules are complex, and they need to be examined in considerable detail in order for their application to be fully grasped. Statutory controls on the contents of the contract Statute law used to confine itself generally to termination of the contract of employ-ment i.e. unfair dismissal, redundancy and takeovers and to certain specific areas which cover employment as one among several areas of human activity, i.e. discrim-ination and health and safety. The position has now changed considerably. In the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 and the Working Time Regulations 1998, we have for the first time a general statutory control of the two most basic elements of the contract of employment: how much employees are paid and how long they can be required to work in return. In addition “family-friendly” measures have been introduced by the Employment Relations Act 1999 and the Employment Act 2002. Contract of service or contract for services? There is a fundamental difference between a contract of service (employment) and a contract for services, i.e.
eBook - PDFA Manager's Guide to Employment Law
How to Protect Your Company and Yourself
- Dana M. Muir(Author)
- 2003(Publication Date)
- Jossey-Bass(Publisher)
In sum, this chapter raises and refines many of the concepts dis- cussed throughout this book. The doctrine of employment-at-will grants managers much discretion in hiring, in promoting or demoting, and in fir- ing employees. But numerous legal constructs, at federal, state, and local levels, act to constrain managerial actions. My overarching goal in this book has been to introduce you to some of the basic legal concepts that are important as you manage your workforce on a day-to-day basis so that you will be more comfortable in approaching Employment Law issues as business decisions. As when you encounter other business decisions with specialized risk factors, it may be critical that you consult an attorney who is knowledgeable about employment cases to assist you in analyzing the risk posed by various approaches. You should feel confident, though, that you understand many of the basic building blocks that the attorney will rely on in analyzing the situation so that you can be an informed client. Ultimately, no attorney can guarantee that a job candidate, em- ployee, or former employee will not sue over a negative action you take. But this is no different from the other business decisions you face. As a manager you deal with risk on a daily basis. In employment matters, as in all your other areas of responsibility, your success depends on your abil- ity and willingness to weigh the risks and benefits of potential actions. I hope the basic legal principles you have learned in this book will make you more confident in managing risk when it comes to the decisions you make with regard to your employees, and more aware of when you should seek expert counsel. 175 Notes Chapter One 1. “Retired Wide Receiver Catches $10M Jury Award,” National Law Journal (February 7, 2000): A15.
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