STATUTORY RESEARCH OF EMPLOYMENT LAW FOR BUSINESS

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This article is written by Monalisha Jana of 2^nd Semester of Adamas University, School of law and justice.

ABSTRACT

The present study experimentally investigated about theemployment law for business. Employment law where some law is made for both employer and employee to provide right and safety as well. An introduction about employment law when its introduced and short definition. And also talk about the terms and conditions of employment law means rule and regulation that protect the right and duties of employment. When discrimination happened with and employee and the termination of employment its reason and about damages. Also the advantages and disadvantages of employment law and some cases which come under the employment law provision.

Keywords: – Employment law, Equal treatment and no discrimination, Employees right, Termination process.

INTRODUCTION

Employment laws which was first introduced in the UK in 1833. Employment law which is the area of law that governs the employee -employer relation. The employment relationship is regulated by both voluntary and legal measures. It is crucial law for every workplace. It is an important part for owing a business, Every employment opportunity, equal wages, annual live, sick time, maternity and paternity leave, working condition, time limit, employee recruitment. Employment law is a federal statue include as a part of the civil right act of 1964. Employment law ensures that no discrimination is done on behalf of employment.

In a business employer must also provide the safety and the training which required for the employee while they are working on their premises. An employer can work better when the working environment is safe. Employment law also protect employee from harassment in a workplace. Employment law played a very important role in business operation. The employee and employer both should understand these laws so that none of the terms stated in the employment law is violated on the job.

OBJECTIVES

The current work is aiming to find out the terms & conditions, discrimination, termination of employment, advantage and disadvantage of employment law for business.

EMPLOYMENT LAW AND ITS TERMS & CONDITIONS

Employment law is the rule and regulation that protect the right and duties both employees and the business in which they work. Employment term and condition of business can include the right, responsibilities, duties and job.

Employment legislation: –

The employment right act 1996 protect matters like

Contract of employment: – It is a written agreement between employer and employee that signed by both of them. This contract includes the terms of employment and what to expect within the working period. According to the Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2018 Employment contracts must include 5 core terms of employment. In India a contract can be written or oral, either be expressed or implied.
The contracts need to clearly state: –
The name of the business and employer name.
The address of the business and employer.
The expected length of the contract, if the agreement is fixed-term or it’s temporary.
The payment Schedule and the payment rate or the calculation of the payment rate
The average duration of working hours per day or in week.

The benefit of having an employment contract is to keep everyone aware of their work contract.

Pay: – Regarding pay, at least national minimum wages that set by the government shall be paid.

Under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 the appropriate Government fixes minimum wages for all the employments. The Act empowers State Governments to fix the minimum rate of wages for different types of employment in India. Currently, the National Floor Level of Minimum Wages in India is Rs.160 per day.” [1]

Pay covers all financial reward that the organisations make to workers. This includes wages or salary and also variable earnings like bonuses and overtime.

Pension: – For employee pensions are arranged and contributed to by employers. In some companies employees also contribute a percentage of their salary to their workplace pensions.
Studying and training: – To do a better performance in work place training and studying is important, by training one can understand better new technology. Business benefits can be Widespread through a culture of quality training.

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We are what we repeatedly do.” — Aristotle

Maternity, paternity, – An employ can take maternity and paternity leave. it is protected time that an employee can take off to care for their newborn or newly adopted child. These two laws are fundamentally present to safeguard the interest of mother and father before and after the child birth.

Is employment terms and conditions can be changed?

Employers can change terms and condition of employment by lawfully. In a written employment contract the terms and condition that will be changed must be agreed by both parties before any actioning change.

If the employee doesn’t agree with changes than employer is not allowed just to bring the changes. They can terminate the contract by giving notice and offer a new agreement. The employers are expected to follow a statutory minimum dismissal procedure.

If employee don’t accept the new contract – or if accepted the new one but feel there was no good reason for ending the old contract employee have the right to make an unfair dismissal claim provided at least one year’s continuous service with employer. Employee can take some legal action for –

claim breach of contract.
if one of employees statutory employment rights has been breached employee might make an Industrial Tribunal claim.
if employees pay is reduced because of the change, he could make a claim for unlawful deductions from wages.
if the situation is completely unbearable an employee could resign from his job and claim constructive dismissal.
Pay deductions.

DISCRIMINATION: –

Treating someone less favorably because of their age, caste, gender, religion, national region is prohibited in employment and it is unlawful. The Indian constitution prohibits discrimination on the ground of religion, race, sex etc.

The 1963 Equal Pay Act, the 1967 Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act created severe limitations on employers’ abilities to discriminate and make employment decisions based on age, race, gender, sex, religion and national origin.

Also some special provisions have been made for employment for a person with disabilities, a person who is transgender or HIV positive and also for some specific class of person.

The remedies that are available for to employees in successful discrimination claims he/she may be re- instated he/she is terminated or force o resign on the basis of discrimination or be provided with adequate damages. If an employer committed any malicious and reckless act of discrimination than punitive damages may be awarded to punish the employer.

TERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT: –

Termination of employment is very tricky in every country. There are many factors that need to take care. Any mistake in termination process can cost the company. An employer shall provide at least one month notice along with statutory severance compensation. As per the terms of the employment contract the notice period of dismissal will be determined.

People assumes that in private sector terminate an employee without any reason is easy and the employee can only remain helpless. But in private sector also employee have some basic right. Like in India the industrial dispute act 1947 is use for termination. And also Indian labour law include some duty and right for termination an employment.

The reason for termination: –
Incompetence, including lack of productivity or poor quality of work.
Attendance issues, such as frequent absences.
Insubordination and related issues such as dishonesty or breaking company rules.
Theft or other criminal behavior including revealing trade secrets.
In workplace Sexual harassment and other discriminatory behavior.
Threat to other employee.

All of this reason can effect in business, reduce profits and rick to the safety, health, reputation of employees, customer. Employer can fire an employee if he is doing all of this behavior just need to follow the process.

The wrongful termination of an employee: –

Any violation of contractual agreement from the side of employer the employee can file a suit against employer. Illegal termination can be done by

Discrimination: –

If any employee terminated dur to race, religion, place of birth etc. Then this discriminated termination is illegal.

Breach of contract: –

If employee have signed an employment agreement, both of employee and employer need to abide by the terms of that agreement. If the employer breaches any of these terms, it is a wrongful termination.

Retaliation: –

If an employee is terminated for exercising their legal rights, such as voting, taking time off for jury duty or reporting a workplace safety violation, it is illegal termination.

If an employee is terminated because of workplace dispute and personal grudge etc. is also a wrongful termination

When employee established the reason for wrongful termination then employee can choose the correct legal remedy against the company.

The damages include: –

Lost Benefits
Injunctive Relief
Out-of-pocket losses
Severance Package
Retrenchment Compensation
Health Insurance
Provident Fund
Back pay

Advantages of employment law: –

Employment law guide employees how they should treat employee. Helps to retaining skilled employees due to competition its hard-to-find good skill employee. A fixed minimum period of employment in the agreement will safeguard the interest of the employer. By entering into the contract it gives a job security to employee. In the agreement, the responsibilities and nature of the job will be mentioned in details. And It helps employees with better focus, performance and accountability of the work entrusted. It ensures employees treated fairly so won’t leave for being treated unfairly. Equity in workplace guaranteed by employment law.

Disadvantages of employment law: –

If an employee is in maternity leave employer have to pay employee even, they are not working. Employment laws inflicts additional cost and responsibilities on companies its sometime burden for small size business. Employee training is also a concern requiring extra expenditures beside that employer need to hire an extra staff who will be monitoring and observing the training process.

CASE LAWS: –

Ronald Anderson v. Thiess Pty Ltd (C2014/6722), Fair Work act 2009 (s.604-appeal of decision,19/09/2014)

In this case its concerned an employee’s application for an unfair dismissal remedy the termination of his employment for sending an offensive email which was deemed to be seriously offensive to people of Islamic faith. The commission found that the incident has the capacity to cause significant damages to company’s reputation. Anderson was 65 years of age and employed by Thiess for over 12 years. At age of 65 years old at dismissal it would be difficult for him to obtain other employment. Thiess failed to issue and written warnings to Mr. Anderson and Mr. Anderson also did not get the opportunity to apologies and accept other disciplinary measures before being dismissed from work.

The FWC determined that Mr. Anderson would have likely worked for Thiess for another year, but applied a 50% discount to his expected income for contingencies. And 50% discount on top of this because of his lack of contribution. This resulted amount of $28,758.68 being awarded to Mr. Anderson as compensation.

Smith v Pimlico plumber limited [2022] EWCA Civ 70

The UK’s court has issued a significant holiday pay decision about the workers who were misclassified as independent contractors can recover compensation for holiday pay.

Smith was a worker who claimed back pay for unpaid annual leave he taken. The EAT and ET dismissed his claim and told that Mr. smith only can claim for annual leave holding that this leave was out of the time. The court of appeal reversed the lower court’s decision. Supreme court held that Mr. smith was a worker and he is entitled to get holiday pay and wages protection.

This case is especially important for employers who engaged self-employed contractors. If such individuals can establish that they are in fact workers, they may be able to claim back holiday pay.

CONCLUSION: –

Employment law played a very important role in business operation. Employment law is a broad legislative law it ensures employee rights duties and rule regulation. The law puts certain checks to prevent employees from overstepping boundaries, abusing their position of power and authority.

REFERENCES