Laws and the Work Place - Research Paper Example

Events are pushing the United States to contemplate in new ways about employees’ rights. The traditional methods of formulating and implementing employees’ rights are incompetent, costly, and detrimental. Forceful new events, particularly growingly powerful global competition, the weakening of unions and deep-seated changes in employment law, are currently restructuring workplace issues in striking and astonishing ways. This research paper discusses laws pertaining to employment, particularly those related to health and safety, unions, discrimination, privacy, and job security.

The paper also includes a discussion of the impact of employment law on businesses and consumers. Protecting Employees’ Rights The Department of Labor (DOL) supervises and implements a large number of federal laws. These directives and the rules that enforce them encompass numerous workplace issues for both employers and employees (Goldman & Corrada, 2011). Some of the major areas of employment law relate to health and safety, unions, discrimination, privacy, and job security. The Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act is managed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). . It safeguards union resources and endorses union democracy by obliging labor groups to submit yearly financial statements, by obliging employers, union authorities, and labor advisors to submit statements about specific labor relations practices (Block, 2001).

Some countries oblige unions to undergo certain processes before taking particular steps. Laws may protect the right to become part of a union. Several laws could permit unions to oblige its members to follow certain rules, such as the obligation to conform to a majority rule in a strike ballot (Lawrence, 2006). Some countries do not allow this, like the United States’ ‘right to work’ law. The employment discrimination law safeguards workers from discrimination with regard to gender, age, racial affiliation, ethnicity, religious beliefs, etc.

State and federal regulations include majority of the employment discrimination laws (Lawrence, 2006). There are numerous employment processes or practices that have been regarded discriminatory, which are unlawful. They involve showing discriminatory prejudice in certain job-related processes and areas: recruitment and selection; pay; hiring and/or firing workers; promoting; and different forms of harassment. Appended to the basic protections against discrimination, more current laws have considered the necessity to broaden the law to cover discrimination in terms of disability (Hogler, 2004).

Employee privacy rights deal with the work-related activities and personal information of an employee. Private organizations do have several legal duties to their workers, but generally company guidelines will determine most of the privacy rights of an employee (Lawrence, 2006). On the other hand, job security depends on the economy, the worker’s skills,