With the world still recovering from the most recent recession, some employees find it prudent to keep their heads low and try not to stir up trouble. Times are tough, and jobs are few and far between. That being said, as an employee, you do have legal rights in the workplace. You may not know them all, but you certainly have them.
While rights change based on what country you work in, or what type of employee you are, there are still some rights that stand true for everyone. The following are four fundamental rights guaranteed in the workplace.
Rights against discrimination
Discrimination, occurring both directly and indirectly, is in the workplace far too often. The following are examples of direct discrimination: When someone is negatively treated differently from others because of race, ethnicity, religion, age, or sex. A specific example of direct discrimination would be where an employee is denied a promotion because of their sex.
Indirect discrimination occurs when everyone is treated the same, but the effect of the conduct has an adverse effect on a certain type of worker. An example of this would be not allowing employees to take holidays during a month when a particular religious holiday falls.
Discrimination can also take the form of harassment, such as verbal abuse or unwanted sexual contact.
National minimum wage
The majority of employees are entitled to receive, at least, the national minimum wage as compensation for their work. However, not everyone performing a job-related task qualifies for this entitlement. Exceptions to national minimum wages include those who are self-employed, volunteers, and individuals undertaking work experience (interns).
Knowing if you are a time worker or a salaried worker is crucial. You also won’t get minimum wage if your completing court required community service or working on a chain gang.
Fired with cause and other dismissal rights
Depending upon where you live, there might be strict rights on whether or not employees can be let go with or without cause. Take the state of Tennessee, in America, for example: Tennessee is as “at-will employment” state which means that an employee can be dismissed for any reason, without warning. If you think that you have been unfairly dismissed, you might be able to bring a claim to an attorney. Seeing that this can be quite confusing, you are likely to benefit from a site like that of Legal Vision, which can shed light on specific laws pertaining to one’s unique experience.
Redundancy rights
Redundancy is a type of dismissal that occurs when an employee is asked to leave because the company has decided that the employee’s work is no longer needed—this is often caused by company re-structuring (in order to cut costs).
Generally, in order to claim redundancy pay entitlement or unemployment, you must have been employed continuously in your job for a certain time period. Your unemployment pay will depend on the number of years in continuous employment in your current job. It will also take into account how long it might be before you gainfully employed again.
Whether you landed on this page because you think you’ve been let go unjustly or you think you’ve been discriminated against, it is important that you verify what rights you have before you make a rash decision.