Employment Law Services in the United Kingdom - Case Study Example

Name) (Institution) (Date) Introduction In United Kingdom, all employees have employment rights despite the type of work they do. The employers have to make sure their workers are treated lawfully and in a right manner. There are many tribunal cases that come up every year because many of the employers treat their workers unlawful, in addition to failure to issue contracts. Some also do not use lawful procedures while dealing with their employees and never make professional actions when firing employees. However, employers should have the correct documents, support and advice in order to comply with the United Kingdom employment laws to avoid wasting time and unnecessary costs. Additionally, they are supposed to be aware of how to deal with issues regarding, promotion, dismissals, grievance complaints, disciplinary actions and recruitment, in terms of their employment rights. Therefore, the employees are entitled to rights such as, absence from work, paternity, maternity, family emergencies, their wages, airing out their grievances and right for flexibility working. Most importantly, they are not to be discriminated despite against regardless of race, gender, disabilities, beliefs, religion and gender (Pettinger 1999, pg 57). In this regard, this paper aims at discussing the two scenarios explaining the key legal issues involved in a tribunal in determining the outcome of the two cases. Employment law services are meant to meet the needs of managers, proprietors, business owners, who require employment law documents and advice. Alternative dispute resolution is type of mediation that that is used to resolve disputes between two or more parties. The mediator helps the two parties settle their own disagreements by expressing their own opinions about the case. Additionally, the mediation follows a certain timetable and structure than the ordinary negotiation. The process is therefore, private and confidential, asserts Pettinger (1999, pg 66). For the case to continue, the mediator must be present. However, the mediators use several methods to improve the discourse between disputants, to help them come up with an agreement. This is because the disputant rely on the mediator’s training and skill to come up with the same agreements. Some of the disputes that a mediator may be required to come in are legal, commercial, family matters, community, workplace, and diplomatic issues. For example, when workers go on strike they may require a third party to help negotiate their problems and come up with an agreement between the organization and the workers. John Davies case is an example, of an employee whose rights have been defiled. He has been employed for two years by a small market research company which only employs 10 people. His work involves organizing online market research surveys, internet searching, reading and summarizing data for clients thus producing report under tight deadlines. However, due to his age his performance has gone down due to severe migraines. This attacks often recur 2 to 3 days pushing him to take 15 offs a month. Because of this, his employer has become concerned of his performance and often rates his performance as poor. In addition, he has blocked him from applying for a promotion although he is qualified. He claims that he is disabled and therefore, not suitable for normal procedures like other employees. Despite still being employed by the same company, Davies thinks that he has been discriminated upon because of his disability. His employer has also not shown him any leniency and suggests that they have been more lenient with him since he is still employed but cannot go further than that since their performance depends on all employees’ performance. The company also claims that, they lost one of their customers because of Davies failure to complete his report on time. Some of the key legal issues that a tribunal would consider in determining the outcomes of this case in relevant legislation are employment federal discrimination laws like, Civil Rights Act that prohibits age discrimination, which protects employees above 40 years of age. In United States, the employment discrimination law is prescribed under section 6103 indicating “that no individual in United States shall,” on basis of age, be excluded from participation, in the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under, any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance”. (Holland 1990).Secondly, the tribunal will look into the Americans disabilities act that forbid employers, local governments, labor unions, employment agencies, and state from discriminating qualified workers with disability in job promotion or application procedure, firing, compensation, and other privileges of employment. Therefore, in regard to Davies case, the tribunal will negotiate the case according to the above laws. He should not be discriminated upon because he is over 40 years of age as well as he has become disabled because of his migraines. Holland (1990, pg 56), explains that the UK law protects their workers from age discrimination and disabilities. Equal employment commission in UK enforces the federal laws in making it illegal for the employers to discriminate workers against age, race, sex, religion and disability. Moreover, it also enforces laws to make sure employees are not discriminated because of filing for discrimination or complains for discrimination. Nevertheless, the employment and disability institute offers for people with disabilities in making sure they are not discriminated against because of their sickness. The employer of Davies should promote him regardless of his sickness and should not block him from applying to a promotion since he has qualified for the post. He has a right to work according to the contract and time off whenever he is sick. The tribunal will look into the above explained laws and act accordingly. This is because in UK for example, all employees have equal rights found in the employment rights act 1996, where the law states clearly that “every employee is entitled to an employment contract which includes the collective agreement and should be followed accordingly by his employer. In the second scenario, of Christine Wallis who is a shop floor worker in the line of production and distribution of pizzas to restaurants, is being discriminated on because of her sexual orientation, the company employs 500 people, where Christine is among the 40 people comprising of rough men and women, since she is quite obese she has become the subject of the day because of her homophobolic figure by her workmates both male and female. Some accuse her of being gay, draws graffiti on her daubes, make crude comments on her possible sexuality. Moreover, because of this treatment her life has become a misery, and never thought of reporting the matter to the management until recently but the supervisor responded by telling her that it is possible to control the people. Therefore, Christine has filed on being discriminated because of her sexual orientation and has witness to testify on her behalf. The company however, asserts that Christine has never raised a formal complain about the issue, and therefore they did not know about it, thus their failure to respond. In addition, the company has a policy concerning harassment which encourages their workers to bring to attention issues like Christine’s immediately, and she has not dome this. The company went ahead and investigates the matter but found out that the harassment was due to her obesity and likely sexuality which is not included in the legislation. In determining the outcome the tribunal will have to follow a certain procedure that is relevant in terms of employment law. After making sure that the company did not take appropriate issues concerning the matter, the tribunal will take necessary action. According to Daniels (2004, pg 77), he asserts that both lesbians and gas are protected against harassment and discrimination in the workplace. Therefore, regardless of Christine being a gay no one has the right to make funny comments on her or harassed in any way. The state law also indicates that almost every state has prohibited discrimination against sexual orientation in both private and public employment. An employer should also not discriminate against an employer whose sexual orientation is questioning. He or she has the right to be treated like the other workers and therefore, the employee who feels he is discriminated against because of this, can sue the organization under other legal theories based to do with discrimination, like, invasion of one’s privacy, defamation, harassment among others. In meditating on the case, the tribunal will also look at the employer’s law that protects the employees known as transgender and internal grievances measures for claims against discrimination. The law forbids the employers from refusing to endorse, firing, refusing to hire, any employee whose gender presentation is confusing. In UK, the federal law protects gays, lesbians and all transgender people from being discriminated upon in the work place (Daniels 2004, pg 96) Title V11 of civil rights of 1964”. It forbids an organization sex discrimination as well as ones weight, for example in Christine’s case of being obese. The organization should take the necessary actions on the culprits who are making her life become unbearable in the workplace. They should listen to her grievances instead of ignoring her calling. In most cases, when an employer files a case against his company, the employment tribunal will first look at the circumstances in which the case took place. They then send a questionnaire to the employer asking him about the incident in order to get the employee version of the story. The tribunal can also ask the employer to provide them with necessary proofs like memos, or letters to prove their efforts in warning the culprits of sexual discrimination incase of Christine’s case or letting the employers know of any sensitive issue before they take action. In case discrimination has taken place, the employment tribunal requires the employee to be compensated with interest. This is to compensate her for the hurt feelings or loss of the job. Similarly, it can ask the employer to correct the issue with immediate effect, but cannot force him to promote the employer as in case of Davies. Therefore, the tribunal aims at reducing the effect of discrimination on some employees as well as fight for their rights. Conclusion Employment discrimination is prohibited in the United Kingdom as well as, in other parts of the world. Federal laws forbid discrimination based on certain characteristics like gender, age, color, race, disabilities among others. In addition, it prohibits discrimination in terms of hiring, firing, promotion policies, disciplinary actions and compensation. It sates that, every worker is entitled to fair treatment. Therefore, in regard to Davies and Christine’s case, the employers should not fire them because of their age, sexual orientation, disability and being obese. References: DANIELS, K. (2004). Employment law for HR and business students. London, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development HOLLAND, J. A., & BURNETT, S. (1990). Employment law. Oxford: New York, Oxford University Press. PETTINGER, R. (1999). Effective employee relations: a guide to policy and practice in the workplace. London, Kogan Page. PERRITT, H. H. (2004). Employment law update. New York, N.Y, Aspen Publishers. (1990). Sexual orientation and the law. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Univ. Press Read More