Laws Governing Labor and Employment - Essay Example

? Laws Governing Labor and Employment The AFMLA of 1993 views that, covered employers have to give their employees unpaid and job-protected leave foreligible family or medical reasons including pregnancy, individual or family sickness, foster care for placement young children, pregnancy, or military leave. Herein, eligible employees may go for a maximum of 12 work weeks of unpaid leave within any year (12 months), for severe ill health of the employee, spouse, parent, and child or for care and pregnancy of a newborn. Emerson (2004) states that, those who qualify for this leave ought to have worked for more than 1250 hours and not in less than 12 months. Furthermore, the company has to have more than 50 employees within a radius of 75 miles. The regulation also requires that employers: Protect their employees from any form of retaliation by an employer for such rights. Guard employee benefits while they are gone for leave. All employee benefits before they went on leave have to be reinstated. Protect the employee from being denied their right to go on leave under the act. Offer the exact health insurance benefits, which have to include company contributions to premiums that would be awarded should the employee go on leave. The employees on leave have to come back to a similar position they worked in before they went on leave. If the exact position is not available, then the employer has to offer a position that is equal in pay, responsibility, and benefits. Lastly, they have to be given occasional leave should they face any serious ill health, or that of a family condition, which include intermittent leave for appointments to the doctor for treatment, therapies or other serious conditions (Goldman & Sigmond, 2010). Non-eligible types of leave and workers These regulations do not apply to: Workers in companies with less than 50 employees; nonetheless, the threshold does not apply to local educational and employer agencies. Part-time workers with less than 1,250 hours within a paid vacation and the 12 months period; Employees in need of leave to take care for elderly parents who are not parents; Employees needing time to recover from common illnesses like common cold or flu. Workers in need of regular medical checkups The employee in situation A has toiled for the company for at least two years. He took and 11 week leave to be with his spouse who had given birth to twins prematurely. So far, he has not broken the rules governing the employment law. Firstly, he has gone for 11 weeks of the maximum 12 and has been working for over two years. However, there is not provision for someone to be paid. Therefore, the new manager is not forced to release the employee’s salary for the time he was away. His spouse had given birth to twins prematurely, which is catered for in the AFMLA. Nonetheless, the new manager has not infringed the right to leave of the gentleman. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) The ADEA bars discrimination against employees 40 years of age and more. Employers are not allowed to: Snub, fire, or discharge a person because of the certain terms, compensation, or employment privileges in view of their individual age (Miller, Jentz, & Jentz, 2009). To lessen the wage rate of any worker to comply with the above regulations; To classify, isolate, or limit employees in ways that would deny or deprive the individuals of employment avenues because of their age. Furthermore, it will be unlawful for employment agencies to refuse to discriminate against any person because of their age. There are also other laws tackling labor organizations; Labor organizations are not allowed: To expel or exclude any person from its membership because of age; To classify, segregate, limit, classify or refuse to employ any person in ways that would deny employment opportunities. To try or cause any employer to discriminate against employees in violations of the regulation; In situation B, the employee in question is 68 years of age and nearing his retirement. However, he has worked for the company for the last 42 years. During the last month’s review, the employee got an above average for his work in his department. He was denied a promotion in the same department because of his age. The promotion was given to a co-worker, who is 32 years of age. His performance was reviewed as adequate. There is no violation. In such a state of affairs, the company did it in their best interest when they refused to promote him because of the age. He is about two years from retirement; therefore, his promotion would not last long. Though his productive years in the company are about to come to an end. The co-worker was still young and energetic. He had more reproductive years ahead of him. At 32, he still has about forty years of reproductive work to the company; therefore, the company did the right thing. Nonetheless, the company should ensure that the 68 year old employee get the necessary retirement benefits as required by law. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) ADA protects workers with disabilities akin to those offered to employees on the basis of nationality, race, age, color, origin, sex, and religion. It offers equal opportunity for those with disabilities in transportation, public accommodations, telecommunications, employment, state, as well as, local government services. To be protected under this regulation, an individual had to be associated with someone with a disability. According to Emerson (2009), this refers to an individual with mental and physical impairment, which limits one from major life activities. The ADA defends one from prejudice by reason of the disability, especially if they are suitable for a particular job. This applies to job hiring processes, application procedures, discharge and advancement of employees, job training, worker’s compensation, as well as other, privileges, terms and conditions. As per the ADA Title III, which covers commercial and public accommodations state that disability should not be a reason to refuse anyone. Everyone has to fully enjoy all the facilities, goods and services. Public accommodations include transportation, lodging, recreation, dining, education, public displays, along with other stores. ADA documents require that public buildings be accessible to every person including the disabled. Herein, technical requirements have to be considered during the design, building, or modification of facilities and buildings as required by ADA. The concept of reasonable accommodation refers to anything that doesn’t constitute undue hardship. The EEOC looks at several factors including the general financial resources of the facility, as well as the effects of reasonable accommodation on the resources and expense. They look at the effect of such an accommodation upon the facility’s operation, which includes the impact on the talent to run business. According to the EEOC, undue hardship can be measured against the whole operations of the employer and not just a department. In this case, the cost of situation C will thus affect the entire company and not just a department. The third applicant needs a wheelchair to move around after being paralyzed. It appears that he is much competent in the job; the only problem was his disability. His job requires that he moves throughout the building and even using the elevator to access the headquarters. According to the company, applicant C would cause undue complications to the company. To start with, the building that houses the company has gone against the rules and regulations governing the building act. It seems the building was not designed to the benefit of employees with a disability. Secondly, the company went against the ADA of 1990. The regulations do not allow the company to discriminate any applicant due to their disability. The company should have invested substantial amounts of money to place the necessary key pads in the two elevator cars to lower them four inches so that the applicant would use them. Under the private/ public accommodation, Title III takes care of access by individuals with disabilities to commercial facilities and public accommodations like malls and restaurants. References Emerson, R. (2009). Business Law: Barron's Business Revision Books. 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