The Employment Relationship, Employment Discrimination and Employment Regulation - Assignment Example

Employment relationship, employment discrimination and employment regulation: This essay is a discussion about different important dilemmas associated with the gravely sensitive issue of employment. First part of the discussion is primarily emphasized on the varying factors involved in employment relationship with special reference to the poignant issues of privacy and termination. Second part succinctly identifies major paradoxical situations encountered in employment when considering discriminatory actions taken against employees and third part is based on workers’ compensation in context of employment regulation. The aim of this essay is to build awareness among the readers regarding complex standoffs and dilemmas involved in employment, ignorance from which may lead to harrowing scenarios. Mostly, employment relationship is a contractual or legal link between employers and employees. All the reciprocal rights, obligations and disciplinary principles decided between employers and workers originate from the foundation of employment relationship. The existence of an employment liaison is the condition that determines the way labor and social security law provisions addressed to employees can be applied. The importance of this relationship can be judged by the fact that it is the key reflective point for determining the nature and extent of employers rights and obligations towards their workers. With the growing incidents of inconveniences faced by workers all over the globe owing to the ambiguities related to the privacy and termination issues involved in the nature of this relationship, this issue has bagged more and more importance in the workplaces. It goes without saying that the root cause of the mounting misunderstandings between employers and employees is the disguised nature of the employment relationship. The most basic privacy rights of workers that need to be handled carefully include the right to protect the privacy of social security numbers, personnel records, telephonic conversations and the right to disallow listening to all electronic communication systems. Furthermore, many federal and statutory laws emphasize on protecting the privacy of employees’ medical records and information and background screening. Background screening actually identifies different background checks and records that are required by some employers as a part of workers recruiting process. An employer is not allowed to probe endlessly into the worker’s private issues in life. Different state laws and employment legislatures restrict the type of background information (such as criminal history, finances, bankruptcy, etc.) that an employer can be allowed to inquire about. Included in these laws are various requirements enforced by the law to obtain consent to get the information about the confidentialities from the employee regarding how the information will be and ultimately is used. Some states additionally design statutes that make it illegal for employers to prohibit employees from discussing sensitive issues that the employer prefers to keep private and confidential. Reportedly, California has labor code sections that make it illegal for employers to prohibit employees from discussing or disclosing their wages or working conditions and compensations, or to take action against them for doing so. (Gross, 2008). Employment termination is another issue often fought over between employers and employees. The catch-22 is that in many situations, termination of an employee is not an easy task even if that person is displaying poor performance. The employers need to be very careful and positive about fair dismissal, for if it is otherwise, a claim can be brought against them in a court by the dismissed employee. Retention of such workers rather then straight-off dismissal is sometimes a good option for the employers, if such workers intend to perform professionally next time. There are multiple fine points that can be raised by the employees against dismissal, owing to the fact that employment termination is scary and fraught with risk if an employer fails to properly follow the dismissal procedural plan. Many critiques have argued about the ever-increasing dismissal costs enforced on the employers, which they are legally ordered to pay the employees when terminating them. I personally agree with the arguments against mounting dismissal costs and the process of terminating poor performers should be made easy, because there is not always a case of unfair dismissal. Workplace discrimination occurs when an employee is adversely discriminated against due to a number of factors. Commonly, these types of discriminatory acts include biased practices based on age, sex, race, religion or ethnicity. Discrimination is particularly hard to prove if an employee is terminated owing to it and it can be extremely daunting to endure discrimination at work, since most employees tend to be afraid about complaining, obviously fearing the bullies. This is the paradox, to avoid which some employees continue enduring the discriminatory behavior. If discrimination or harassment does occur in the workplace then it is very important that the employee enforces their rights. Discrimination in the workplace is not uncommon although it is reportedly thought to have decreased significantly since the new regulations came into force. Discrimination is basically breach or infringement of human rights and can also be reported to Human Resources departments. Trade unions are also another contact point for infringement of rights issues. Finally, Employment Tribunals should be contacted, which in some cases give an employer the chance to try to justify their discrimination and at other times, such as direct discrimination, no justification is permitted. Reportedly, many organizations have begun to consider that an increasing burden of regulation is limiting employers’ freedom to run their companies efficiently. I do not think so like many critiques are also not convinced that the burden of regulation is excessive or damaging to business competitiveness at present. According to Legal Information Institute (n.d), to support the unemployment compensation systems, a combination of federal and state taxes are levied upon employers. States base employer contributions on the amount of wages the employer has paid, the amount the employer have contributed to the unemployment fund, and the amount that the discharged employees have been compensated from the fund. Federal and state laws cover almost every aspect of compensation, and where there is a difference between laws, an employer must combine the requirements in the way that is most favorable to employees. When talking about workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance is very important that provides workers, whose jobs have been terminated without their personal fault, monetary payments for a specific period of time or until they find a new job. Basically this sort of compensation is intended to provide an unemployed worker time to find a new job equivalent to the one lost without financial distress. The importance of employment regulation is such that without it, many workers become forced to take jobs for which they are unsuitable or probably, they end up on welfare. Unemployment compensation is also justified for supporting workers’ expenditures during periods of economic disturbance. References: Gross, B. (2008). Basic Privacy Issues in the Workplace. Retrieved from http://www.allbusiness.com/labor-employment/labor-regulation-policy-employee-privacy/7869527-1.html. Legal Information Institute. (n.d). Unemployment Compensation law: an overview. Retrieved from http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/Unemployment_compensation. Read More