Running a successful business requires knowledge in many fields, not just what you have based on. This will help you to prevent problems, and in case they happen, you will know how to assess them on time. However, when working with employees, knowing the employment law is a must.
During our everyday lives, we learned how to obey the rules and keep ourselves on the right side of the law. This is important in our working community as well. For that reason, learning as much legal stuff as you can surely bring benefit and prosperity to your company.
In this article, we’ll provide a couple of employment law legal tips and basics that every business owner has to know. Keep reading and find out how to protect your business, find the right lawyer and all while avoiding some of the most common legal problems.
1. Ensure you have the right employment standards
To be sure you are not compromising the employment standards, you should first get a copy and study them thoroughly. Every country has different laws, so keeping the statute of employment regulations for reference can be a helpful reminder.
These standards include most of the already known things. For example, for a certain career position, a person has a minimum wage and the number of hours they have to fulfill weekly. In addition, there are the holidays when the person is free from work, as well as the vacation period. The period to announce their working status termination is also written in this statute.
Besides these regular staples, there are a couple of restrictions you have to be careful about. These include hiring children and terminating the working status of people who have worked a long time for you.
In addition, the periods where a person is free not to come for work while they are sick, or have parental leave. If you have questions about this statute, you can simply call the agency that’s enforcing these laws.
2. Be sure to have the contracts written and signed
With every person that you hire, you have an initial verbal contract and agreement. Even though this is enough in most cases, there are situations with disagreements and lawsuits. To avoid such scenarios, you should be sure to make every contract in a written form.
In the contract, every term has to be clear and present. With that, you are informing the employee about their responsibilities, and everything else regarding their job. When they fail to deliver, you can simply call out to this contract and be safe. Before you hand out the contract, be sure that it has everything you require, if needed, consult with your lawyer.
The contract should be signed before or on the day when the person gets hired. This prevents situations of giving them wrong employment standards which could lead to a lawsuit. For that reason, the contract should contain the time when it is signed.
3. Not compromising the human rights
Besides all the regular employment standards you have to adopt, human rights are still a principle of a proper working place. For that reason, depending on where your business is stationed, learning about the worker’s human rights is essential.
You will need to provide an atmosphere where the worker is not discriminated against under any circumstances. These include ethnicity group, age, and gender identification. In addition, sexual orientation, politics, and religion are other factors on where people might feel judged.
By being sure that the characteristics from above are personal and only important for the worker itself, you will be a step closer to providing a non-discrimination atmosphere. In addition, you should speak with every other employee to be welcome and tolerant about the personal characteristics of their colleagues. This contributes to the accommodation of each worker which is surely great.
If you fail to provide an atmosphere where every worker feels accepted and appreciated for their work, you might get in trouble. While you will first have to assess the complaints, if you don’t change anything, facing legal actions will surely happen.
This is why it’s so important to have understanding over the legality of certain situations. And the best way to get such understanding is with the help of a lawyer as suggested by Levitt LLP.
4. Knowledge about the safety of the workplace place
No matter how risky or relatively safe your business is, being sure in promoting safer working conditions is an important thing you have to do. For that reason, you have to be sure there is no harassment between colleagues and provide a healthy working atmosphere.
While working in an oil mine, or being a construction worker is much riskier than working in an office, every job is risky on its own. For that reason, informing your employees about the potential hazards in their working place is essential.
Occupational medicine is responsible for the evaluation of employees and assessing their conditions based on the risks they have at work. If you did no efforts in training and preventing such hazards you might get a lawsuit to battle.
To be sure in promoting safety, and informing your workers about potential risks their job brings, there are many agencies you could visit for answers. They will be surely happy to help, since promoting safety is a priority in every community.
5. Archiving everything
Since the main issue in battling employment cases is providing evidence of what happened, as an owner you have to be sure you are keeping track of everything. For that reason, you should demand written complaints from your workers in order to timely react and have coverage for that.
Keeping documentation of everything your worker does is an essential piece of evidence that will surely be handy in a bad situation. This includes all the seminars, reviews, and disciplinary measures that have to be archived.
In addition, some laws oblige you to track and write everything related to your worker. This includes their personal information, how many hours they have worked, and any possible deductions in their wage.
In addition, keeping transactions of their vacation grant, all the written absences and periods where they have been suspended. However, it is not only about tracking and keeping the documents, but also about being able to quickly access them. With that, you have coverage for your actions and your business remains safe.
