WORKPLACE SECURITY AND WORKER PRIVACY - Essay Example

Of them 20 enactments relate to Minimum Wages, which are prescribing wage increases @ $0 .25 every year, bringing the wage levels in some States to $ 8.00 per hour. There are conditions imposed on employers not to include in this, tipped wages beyond $ 3.00. Besides this, 18 amendments relate to Workplace Security, 12 to Time off and 11 to three categories, viz., Prevailing Wages, Wages Paid and Worker Privacy. In this essay, let us go into the impact of these two legislations, in the current business scenario, particularly with an organization providing customer service call centers for multiple organizations; located in 5 other States and 6 cities in India.

Workmen's compensation legislation prescribes compensation for employment injuries and the employer's responsibility is well defined in that respect. But, in the case of Workplace violence, besides the fact it is a bad culture deteriorating the organizational image principally, the employer's liability in terms of damage and legal remedies is beyond one's comprehension. In light of the doctrine that employer is responsible for the employee's conduct affecting a third party, who may be a fellow employee, customer or even a casual visitor, the employer is basically obligated to ensure that there is no scope for work place violence, particularly caused by the conduct of the employee.

The law extends further more, in the sense, hiring and retaining a person who is likely to cause violence, will also put the employer into jeopardy. The potential application of negligence actions to cases where an employee has been caused injury by harassment at work was confirmed in Waters (AP) v Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis [2000] IRLR 220. The House of Lords held that "if an employer knows that acts being done by employees during their employment may cause physical and mental harm to a particular fellow employee and he does nothing to supervise or prevent such acts, when it is in his power to do so, it is clearly arguable that he may be in breach of his duty of care to that employee".

[Equality and Human Rights Commission, 03-03-2009 ()] Employers can be found liable for negligent retention for not terminating an employee who has violated company policy on workplace violence. Or, if an employer failed to perform a thorough background check on an employee who proves to be a safety threat, an employer could be liable for negligent hiring.[Correy E. Stephenson, Lawyers USA.Boston:Oct 23, 2006.( )] The learned Judges have pronounced that employers owe potential customers a legal duty to use due care in retaining an employee who attends to those customers, as in the case Watson v.

City of Hialeah. In this case a marital counselor had