Impact Of Employment Law On Employment Relationships Law Employment Essay

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Done: Mohammed Al-Koohaji

Section:

An introduction:

Employment is defined as a give and take relation between employer and employee, which result in the formation of an agreement resulting in the payment of a definite amount at the completion of the term of agreement, agreed by both the parties. Employment relation is thus affected by various factors as follows.

Terms of employment.

Place of employment.

Payments as per agreement.

Mode of payment.

Amount agreed for payment.

Completion of term of employment.

Following of set of rules and regulations of employment.

Benefits and losses following the employments conditions.

Working conditions.

Laws related to employment.

Terms of employment.

Rules and regulations related to employment.

Market rate of employment.

Inflation.

Government directions.

Thus, from the above the two major factors that impact the employment relationship are as follows.

Internal factors:

The two major internal factors that affect the employment relationship are as follows.

Place of employment:

If the place of employment is far away from the residence of the employee and also there is lack of efficient transfers to the working place. Then the employee will always keep searching for a nearer place to his home. Thus an employer must keep care of the transfer of the employees to the work place in a proper and efficient manner so that the employees come to the work without feeling tired or getting late.

Working conditions:

The working conditions include the light arrangements, air, water supplies, space and other working place requirements. Thus a healthy work place is considered such a place where the employees find a suitable environment to work, which includes, bright lighting arrangements, air conditioned environment, clean and available water supplies, enough space to move without blocking the production process or hindering the movement of another employee.

Working conditions also includes good employer employee relations, and also employee-employee relations. That is a healthy relationship among the employees and also with the employer confirms the presence of employee for a longer time period. Thus, if an employee is suffering from not so good relationship in the work place, than he/she will surely look for other employment opportunities, which can be either inside the workplace or even outside the work place.

External factors:

The External factors include the following two major factors.

Wage rate:

The wage rate, that exists in the industry in another factor that affects the employment relations. That is, if the wage rate is lower in the company as compared to the industry than the employees will certainly be tempted towards other company’s job. This will make head hunting easier and the company may lose efficient employees. On the other hand if the wage rate is higher than the industry than the company will be in a position to attract better talents from the industry.

Other companies working conditions:

The working conditions in the other companies also become a part of employee relation. That is if the working conditions in other company in the same industry is healthier, safer and employee friendly than the employees will definitely feel dissatisfied from their present jobs and try to move towards getting jobs in other companies.

Different types of employment status:

There are mainly three types of employment status which are as follows.

Permanent:

Permanent employment is a situation where in the employee enjoys full time employment and also with that the benefits of a permanent employee which includes paid leaves, perks, and other benefits that is showered on the person during the retirement. A permanent employee is also entitled to get all the medical benefits during the working period.

Temporary:

A temporary employment is a situation where in the employees are kept on probation basis or due to irregular requirements. Thus such an employee is not entitled to all the benefits and fringes enjoyed by permanent employee. But he is given basic benefits, like medical aid, medical leave, rest time, and others. These employees are sometimes kept as permanent employees if their work is liked by the employer.

Seasonal:

A seasonal employee includes all such employees which are hired for a definite period. Thus these kinds of employees enjoy no benefits of permanent and temporary employees. They are hired for a definite period for a definite work purpose which on ending, ends the term of service of the seasonal employee.

Three reasons why it is important to clearly determine an individual’s employment status are as follows.

The employee could get an idea of the earnings and benefits so that he can decide on joining the job well in advance than making remorse on the step taken during the job.

The employer can easily distribute the work among the different status employees in such a way that permanent employees.

The company can estimate the payroll that it has to pay at the end of each month.

The concerned managers can provide the new entrant with a more responsible job which is not usually given to the temporary staff.

Employee’s rights during the employer-employee relationship include various features. Employers must provide the employee with all his rights in the workplace while the employee must fulfill his responsibilities as per the employment contract. It is essential therefore that the rights and responsibilities of employees and employers are known and understood. Every employee is entitled to basic rights while working. While these rights differ in some industries, there are basic employee rights that apply to all businesses.

The employee’s rights during the employer-employee relationship include the followings.

A written statement of terms and conditions of employment with the names and details of the employer and employee. Whilst the full contract does not have to be in writing, certain terms and conditions of employment must be stated in writing within two months of starting employment. These would typically include the method of calculating pay and whether or not there is a sick pay scheme in operation. For fixed term employees it would also include the circumstances in which your employment will come to an end.

A written statement of pay or ‘pay slip’ every time an employee is paid. A pay slip should set out gross pay and list all deductions made from it.

Payment of a minimum wage.

A maximum working week average of 48 hours a week. The maximum 48 hour week is generally based on an average calculated over a four month period.

Unpaid breaks during working hours. Every employee has the right to a 15 minute break if working four and a half hours of work and a 30 minute break if working six hours of work.

Annual leave from work. Annual leave is earned on time worked. Workers have the right to a maximum of four of their working weeks paid annual leave per year. Each employee’s working week is likely to be different. Some may work five or six days and others may work two or three days per week.

A minimum amount of notice before dismissal. Employees are entitled to a minimum amount of notice and reasons for dismissal if employment ceases. The minimum amount of notice depends on the length of service.

Thus the employee’s rights are based on following basics.

Holidays,

Leaves,

Payroll,

Dismissal,

Medical aid.

Bonus etc.

The importance of work life balance and related legislation:

The importance of work life balance and related legislation includes legislation for holidays, rest periods, working periods, working hours and night working. That is, a prefixed number of holidays to be considered as casual leave. Rest period is also integral part of work period. Also the working hours to be prefixed as per government norms. Night shift consists of the extra benefits which confirm the smooth functioning of the work during those hours.

Family/parent related legislation:

The family and parent related legislation includes legislation includes legal support, including maternity leave, paternity leave, adoption leave and dependent leave. Thus, if an employee is going to have a baby (normally or by adoption) either male or female employee is entitled to get leave for a government pre fixed period; although the females get longer a period.

The two reasons why employees should be treated fairly in relation to pay are as follows.

Employee feels a fair play in the company.

Employee feels to be heard in the company.

Employee live healthy employee-employee and employee-employer relation.

There should not remain any anger and remorse of any kind in the employees so that a brotherly and sisterly kind of relation exists in the company.

Healthy employer employee relation helps in bringing sense of belongings among the employees.

The main points of equalities legislation:

The main points of equality legislation include the concepts of direct and indirect discrimination, harassment and victimization. That is all the employees working in the company should feel safe and be heard in case they get victimized to any of the unlawful act that occurs in the society.

The concept of the psychological contract:

The concept of the psychological contract means that every individual should be treated equally and respectfully in the company. There should not be any discrimination on the basis of any kind of religion, sex, race or any other ground. The psychological contract can be defined as "an individual’s beliefs about the terms of the exchange agreement between employee and employer (Rousseau, 1989).

It concerns the idea of an exchange between parties. Individuals enter employment with a set of beliefs, expectations and obligations, which they anticipate being met by their employer. In addition the employer holds a reciprocal set of beliefs expectations and obligations leaving a binding exchange in place.

Additionally, it is important to note that the psychological contract does not involve items found in the employment contract. Instead of objective and defined promises, it concerns more implicit, subjective and malleable ones. The examples of policies and procedures which can underpin this are as follows.

All men and women are considered equal before the company officials and are bound to follow the set of rules prevailing in the company.

Discrimination the basis of class or religion should not prevail.

The concerned authorities should take fair decisions.

Issues to be addressed at the termination of the employment relationship:

The Issues that should be including in the termination of the employment relationship are as follows.

Termination should follow a proper step of giving away the job by alerting the person by giving time of at least one month.

The pay of the person and all related pays should be finalized and given at time of termination.

The termination should be made of fair grounds.

The differences between fair and unfair dismissal are as follows.

The fair dismissal is based on facts and follows proper steps. While the unfair dismissal are biased and under pressure of another person orders and self consumed thoughts.

A fair dismissal is followed by an altering termination with a time gap of one month. While the unfair dismissal is made on the spot.

Full payment is made to the employee in case of fair dismissal. While the payments are cut on non clear basis in the unfair dismissal case.

The importance of exit interviews to both parties:

There are two commonly used methods to gather information from an employee when they are leaving their position. We should offer the employee the option of requesting an in-person exit interview, completing an exit questionnaire, or both.

The exit interviews helps in finding out the reason behind the cause of such act which result in termination.

It helps in improving the cause of termination and dismissal.

The exit interview helps in finding out the real culprit creating problems in the company.

Redundancies Key stages of redundancies:

A redundancy situation arises where an employer proposes to dismiss as redundant twenty or more employees at one establishment within a ninety-day period. For these purposes, the definition of "redundancy" differs slightly from the one used to establish entitlement to statutory redundancy payments. It means a dismissal for a reason unrelated to the individual employee concerned.

This might occur, for example, where a business or plant closes down, or where an employer no longer needs as many employees to carry out a particular task. It might also occur where dismissals are to take place in a reorganization or reallocation of work, but where there is no overall reduction in the number employed because the employer is taking on new recruits.

The obligations may apply even when an employer intends to offer alternative employment on different terms and conditions to some or all of the employees, with the result that the number actually dismissed is less than twenty; this will be the case if employees are to be redeployed on such radically different terms and conditions that accepting the new posts amounts to dismissal and re-engagement.

The obligations apply to compulsory redundancies, but in some circumstances may also apply to "voluntary" redundancies if an employee has no real choice whether to stay or to leave. If the employer is contemplating 20 or more redundancies and is not sure whether there will be sufficient volunteers, or whether some of the redundancies can be avoided, then the obligation to consult employees and to notify the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform will apply.

Employers are under no specific legal obligation to consult employee representatives or notify the Department in cases falling below the twenty redundancies threshold. However, they may be at risk of successful unfair dismissal claims if they fail to warn and consult individual employees who are to be dismissed in such cases, fail to apply dispute resolution procedures when required or fail to adopt a fair basis for selection or to take reasonable steps to redeploy such employees.

The key stages to be followed in managing redundancies and the impact of redundancy on the whole organization:

Step 1: Giving equal chance to the employee to prove innocence.

Step 2: Alerting the employee about the termination, so that he can find new job.

Step 3: Giving a month time to find a new job.

Step 4: Making payments of all kind at the end of the job.

Step 5: Taking exit interviews to get aware of ground reality.

The impact of redundancies on the whole organization is as follows.

Developing of feeling of unfairness, mistrust, shock leading to demoralization.

Increase in the worry, stress and devastation about the job.

Overwork pressure, lack of sleep and fear of undervalue may exist in the mind of the employees.

Uncertainty about the job, feel of isolation, lower level of self esteem and feeling of powerlessness and frustrated may prevail in the other employees of the company.

Thus, the final outcome is development of distrust, aggressiveness and sarcastic behavior in the company leading to decrease in the output of the company as a whole.

Conclusion:

In the end, the employee relation has to pass through formal stages right from the admission till the dismissal. Therefore it’s better to follow all steps before termination. While the exit interview helps in improving the functioning of the company.