Running head: employment laws 1

Employment Laws

Marleny Rosa

MG-634-101

Professor Ephraim

Author Note

Marleny Rosa, Graduates Program, Kings Graduate Monroe College, concerning this sample

paper should be addressed to Marleny Rosa, Kings Graduate Program, Monroe College, 2501

Jerome Avenue 10468, Bronx, New York. E-mail: mrosa5256@monroecollege.edu.

employment laws 2

Employment Laws

Employment laws have a significate impact on organizations cost and structure. The

establishment and maintenance of internal mechanism, such as training and reporting systems, to

ensure compliance with laws can be time consuming and costly. (Mello, 2015, p. 286)

Employment laws are known to keep the structure within the company/organization. Laws are

put together to create standards, limitations and to provide and help the employees feel safe

within the work place. Employment laws are also created for the employer to protect the

company/industry. Laws such as, employment-at-will, Civil Rights Act of 1964, Equal Pay Act,

Age Discrimination in Employment of 1967, Pregnancy Act of 1973, Americans with

Disabilities, Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Family and Medical Leave Act of 1992, Civil Rights Act

of 1991, Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008, etc., all of these laws protect both

the employer and the employee from any false allegations.

Employment-at-will is a US labor law where the employer can terminate the employee,

without reasoning or giving any notice what so ever. However, there are exceptions such as

Conditions specified in a collective bargaining a union contract, express written contracts

between an employee and employer that are not part of the collective-bargaining agreement, term

of implied contracts between an employer and employees, judicially determined public policy

exceptions to employment-at-will and federal and state statues that expressly prohibit the

discrimination against individuals who are member of certain protected classes (Mello, 2015,

p. 286) While, reading the article 8 Things to Consider When Updating Employee Handbooks

for 2017 the at-will- employment law was stressed enough. Where it is mentioned to have a

policy for this the labor law, it will educate your employees as it would educate the employer.

Apart from educating both parties, it would protect the employer most importantly. For example:
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Terminating an employee without their knowledge of the At-will employment law can hurt the

employee as much as the employer. Terminating an employee without cause is not the wrongful

aspect what is wrong is that the employee was never notified or educated on this policy.

(Nagele Piazza, 2017) This wrongful termination can lead legal actions, it can even be

considered discriminatory, irrelevant, etc. This is why handbooks at any work place should

always be up to date and make sure an acknowledgment is signed by the employee with full

understanding of the policies.

Background check is another topic that is briefly touched upon in the article. Ban-the-

box laws prohibit asking any criminal background questions in the original application, (Nagele-

Piazza, 2017). Ban-the-box will protect the potential candidate from getting discriminated

because of his/her race. Federal Anti-Discriminations Laws, such as the Civil Rights of 1866 and

Civil Rights of 1871, are both laws which gives rights to the employees to say something when

feeling discriminated against all times but of course with reasoning. Equal Pay Right Act of 1963

gives an ability to the employee to seek legal advice whenever they feel that they are being

underpaid compared to someone else. Unfortunately this happens and we should not allow this to

happen. Age Discrimination Act of 1967 protects anyone who feels discriminated because of

their age. This happens and is not unusual .An employer will not hire you because they might

feel you are not fit for the job because of your age. Employers believe that hiring someone who

is over forty might cost more than a younger person. Costing more in the sense that someone

who is over forty is seeking insurance benefits because they are just older.

In conclusion, both the article and the chapter go hand in hand. The article focuses on the

handbook and what should be included for the company/organizations sake. Also touches on how
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it would be beneficial for the company to prevent any cases against the company/organization.

The chapter focuses a lot on how the laws work and what they include to protect both the

employee and the employer. Also tells about how to handle each situation and what the risk

might be and how they are going to effect the employee and employer if an issue occurrs.
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References

Mello, J. A. (2015). Strategic Human Resource Management. (Fourth, Ed.) Australia: Cengage

Learning.

Nagele Piazza, L. (2017, February 15). 8 Things to Consider When Updating Employee

Handbooks for 2017. Retrieved from Society For Human Resources Management:

https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-and-compliance/employment-

law/pages/employee-handbook-updates-2017.aspx

Nagele-Piazza, L. (2017, January 12). Do Ban-the-Box Laws Work? Retrieved from Society for

Human Resource Management: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-and-

compliance/state-and-local-updates/pages/do-ban-the-box-laws-work.aspx