Employee vs.

Employer Rights 1

Running head: Employee’s vs. Employer’s Rights

Employee’s vs. Employer’s Rights

Introduction:
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The term „work „for many people means life existence, by doing certain type of work

people earn money which is used to supply us with basic life needs such as food, clothing,

shelter, etc. We live in a society in which money powers the world. “Because work is

necessary for obtaining so many other goods, work can be said to have an exceptionally

important instrumental value“(Desjardins, 2010). Work is a connection between employer

and employee. In labor market employers seek to find qualified workers and employees seeks

to find paid work. Employees need money to survive and employers are providing that money

in exchange for some work. This relationship between employer and employee brings another

relationship between employer’s rights and employee’s rights. Mutual respect between

employer and employee will have positive impact for both sides, and most important it will

have positive impact on company in terms of success. More companies are losing much of

their money in laws suits to pay off damages that were made because employers did not

respect employee’s rights. By today many laws, regulations and statues are enacted to protect

employee’s right as well as employer’s. Employer’s basic rights are to hire, fire, promote, and

demote employees based on their qualifications, knowledge, skills, ability and performance.

Employees have right to know what expectations are required of them, what they have to do

and in what way do they have to do specific task, also they have a right to know what will be

consequences if they fail to do what is requested from them. By knowing this they can avoid

bad performance evaluation and dismiss from the job as well. Employee’s rights are to rights

to have an “right to a minimum wage, equal opportunity, to bargain collectively, specific

health care package, paid holidays, pension funds”, etc. (Desjardins, 2010). Both employers

and employees rights have to comply with the law and regulations. Employer’s have a right to

act only in a way that is complied with a law and to make decisions that will have no bad

affect on the employees as well on the company.

Title VII of the 1964 Civil rights act

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Title VII bans discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, or sex.

Every employee should have a right to work in an environment that is free from any kind of

discrimination. “Title VII claims generally fall within one of four broad categories: traditional

discrimination, harassment, failure to accommodate religious beliefs, and retaliation (Bagley

and Savage, 2009).

Traditional discrimination includes disparate treatment and disparate impact. Disparate

treatment means intentional discrimination, while disparate impact “means that employer

engages in an employment practice or policy that has a greater adverse impact on members of

protected group”. Employees have a right to sue the employer if disparate treatment or impact

occurs, but only if employees manage to establish a prima facie case. Employers have a right

to fire or refused to hire some person not because of race or color, but because that person did

not have required qualification or skills. Employees have the right to equal paid salaries if job

requires equal work, but also employers have the right to pay salary based on employee’s

performance and accomplishment.

Employees have the right to work in a comfortable environment where their skills and

abilities can be recognized in order to achieve company’s objectives and goals, because

performance of employee depends on whether the working environment is pleasurable or

hostile.

Failure to accommodate religious belief means that employee has a right to ask for a

flexible schedule so that he or she can attend religious ceremonies or flexibility in dress codes

to accommodate clothing mandated by the employee’s religion. Employer has a right to

refuse to accommodate religious belief only if it would cause an undue hardship on the

conduct on the employer’s business.

In cases of discrimination employers have a right to defense themselves based on:

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BFOQ - employers can lawfully hire someone based on religion, sex, national origin, but not

based on race or color, if employer can prove that employee’s sex or religion is a condition to

successfully perform the job.

Business necessity- “requires showing that there is an overriding business purpose for the

discriminatory practice and that the practice is therefore acceptable” (Dessler, 2009).

Employees have a right to sue employers if law is allowing them to do so, and if they

can come up with required evidences, but employers also have a right to defense themselves

from these charges. Today education means everything, some people say that education is

person’s most powerful weapon, more young persons are now educated and ready to joint to

the labor market, to find a paid job. Companies are trying to hire more young people who

have more innovative ideas, and employers do have a right to hire a person for who they think

will best do the job, but this often conflicts with firing people who are considered to be “Old

Age Discrimination Act prohibits discrimination in employment with respect to individuals

aged forty years or older” (Bagley and Savage, 2009). Employees who belong to this group

have the right to use this Act to defense them if they get fired because of their age.

Employers do not have always be charged for violation of this act if they refuse to hire, or fire

the employee that belongs to protected group because there are also certain rights that

employers can use in order to explain his or her decision. Employer may state that “age is

BFOQ reasonably necessary to the normal operation of the business; the differential treatment

is based on reasonable factors other than age; the employer’s action is based on a bona fide

seniority system or employee benefit plan”, etc. (Bagley and Savage, 2009).

“The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits employment discrimination against

qualified disabled individuals“(Dessler, 2009). Employees with disability have a right to ask

for a reasonable accommodation that is they can ask for modification so that they can have
Employee vs. Employer Rights 5

equal employment opportunities. Employers in this case have a right to refuse providing a

reasonable accommodation if that would pose an undue hardship.” An employer generally

does not have to provide a reasonable accommodation unless an individual with a disability

has asked for one.” (Clackamas County, 2010) Employers would usually provide reasonable

accommodation because it is on the interest of company hire a qualified worker that can

contribute to the company’s success.

Employees have a right to organize trade unions which will allow them to collectively

bargain for their pays and employment conditions more successfully than if they had to

negotiate with employers on their own.”The negotiations and relationship between a trade

union and an employer is known as industrial relations” (tutor2u, 2010). Employers also have

some benefits from trade unions, because it is easier to bargain with representative than it

would be to bargain with each employee, workers are more motivated,

Due process in the workplace is important to consider when discussing employers

rights vs. employees rights. “Due process in the workplace means that employees have a right

to be protected from the arbitrary use of managerial authority” (Desjardins, 2010). Employers

can discharge employee only for a good cause, for example if employee is not performing the

job in way which was required of him, employer does not have a right to discharge an

employee just because employer wants to hire someone else. “There are four major

counterarguments to the right of due process: freedom, fairness, property rights, and

efficiency” (Desjardins, 2010). In my opinion these four counterarguments are actually good

reasons why due process is important. Employers cannot make decisions in their companies

without any legal procedures, laws and regulation exist to make the world around us to better

place to live in, if there would be no rules than everyone would do what he or she wants to

and that will eventually lead to the collapse of society. Employers would only make decisions

that would only be profit oriented. Next argument is fairness, employees have a right to quit
Employee vs. Employer Rights 6

their jobs for no cause and employers do not have a right to fire an employee for no reason.

This is a good rule because employees in most cases want to keep their job not quit because

job provides them sources to live and to enjoy in life. If employee would have a right to fire

an employee for no reasons than that would happen a lot because it is much easier to find a

new employee than it is to find another job. Third argument is property rights; employers

have rights on material property concerning the workplace not on employee possession.

Fourth argument is efficiency; employer cannot increase employee’s efficiency by firing them

for no reason, efficiency can be increased through many other ways, for example through

rewards or bonuses, not through dismissing. People will be more effective and efficient when

they feel comfortable in the working environment and when they have some motivation.

Privacy in the work place is another important discussion topic. Here we can find

some conflicts between employee and employer. „To reduce their vulnerability to harassment

litigation and to promote a productive, professional work environment, employers are

increasingly monitoring their employees' use of telephones and e-mail and videotaping their

activities on the job.”(Shumaker, 2003)

Employees have a right to use their computers and internet in workplace only for the

purpose of a job but they do not have a right to use it for personal needs. Employers have a

right to monitoring if it is stated n the company’s policy. Employers do not have a right to

violate employee’s privacy if it is not something that is job-related and if employer wants to

obtain some personal information about employee then employer must ask for permission

from employee. Employees have a right to privacy on personal information but employers

have a right to “establish relevancy of personal decisions and information at issue”

(Desjardins, 2010). Whether employee’s privacy is violated depends on methods that

employer used to gather information about employee:

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Surveillance- Employers have a right to use surveillance if they have a good reason for

that. Reasons can be to lower productivity or breach of company’s confidentiality. Employers

do not have a right to store or review employee’s conservation with other employees.

Employees have a right to be informed is surveillance is going to be preformed.

Drug testing- Drug testing is a powerful tool to used in order to decrease the number

of workplace accidents. Employees may say that drug testing is violation of their privacy but

employers do have a right to do drug testing if they believe that some employee has been

using drug. “Some employers use drug testing on a random periodic basis. Virtually all (96%)

employers that conduct such tests use urine sampling” (Dessler, 2009)

Conclusion

Employees as well as employers have their rights that must be honorable and respected

from both sides, mutual respect between employers and employees leads to a company’s

success. Employees will perform their task better if they work in an environment that makes

them more comfortable and more honorable. By increasing task performance employees are

increasing company’s performance as well. It is not enough to only know about each other

rights it is important to make those rights into practice. Rights exist to protect people and

these rights cannot be used against each other. If employers and employees joint they forces

they can together accomplish enviable results. If work is a relationship between employers

and employees than that connection must be preformed perfectly in a pleasant environment

with pleasant co workers, and this can be attained only if employers and employees joint their

straightness to avoid their weaknesses.

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References

 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). (n.d.). Clackamas County, Oregon. Retrieved

December 8, 2010, from http://www.co.clackamas.or.us/des

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 Bagley, C., & Savage, D. (2009). Managers and the Legal Environment: Strategies

for the 21st Century (6 ed.). West: South-Western College.

 Desjardins Joseph. “An Introduction to Business Ethics”. McGraw-Hill

International Edition- 2010.

 Dessler, G. (2009). A Framework for Human Resource Management (5th ed.).

New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc..

 Employee privacy versus employer rights: it's easy to invade employees' privacy, and

suffer the legal consequences, if you're not careful. Here's how to be careful | Nursing

Homes | Find Articles at BNET. (n.d.). Find Articles at BNET | News Articles, Magazine

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