In every organization, managers, supervisors, and HR have a shared responsibility to maintain a proper and professional relationship with their employees. Not only this, they need to certify that they are doing so by following federal and state employment laws they have in place. From the employee’s point of view, managers, supervisors, and other leaders of the organizations are responsible for keeping everything in check, especially the workers’ rights.
For this, they make policies and implement laws that employees are expected to measure up to. However, to apply those laws, managers should understand and enforce the policies and legal criteria rationally based on employees’ situations. If you are here to learn about these employment laws, do not worry we have got you covered. In this article below, I have mentioned some of the basic laws every manager should be aware of. If you are interested, be sure to give this article a read.
Discrimination and Harassment Laws
While everyone at the office needs to understand the basic discrimination and harassment laws, managers should be particularly trained on anti-discrimination and harassment best practices. If someone ever wants to report their concerns, managers will be the ones receiving and processing those complaints. According to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, managers cannot discriminate against someone based on his race, religion, color, sex, or national origin. It also prohibits sexual harassment. If someone has been subjected to any type of discrimination and harassment that goes against federal or state law, he/she may want to get reliable advocacy such as Madsen, Prestley & Parenteau. There are other related laws such as ADEA, IRCA, GINA, and NLRA that managers need to know about to assist their employees.
Workplace Safety Laws
Every employee wishes and deserves to work in an environment that is safe for them. Fortunately, there are quite a few federal and state laws that guarantee employees’ safety within the workplace premises. To promote wellness and a positive attitude in the workplace, every manager should know about primary health and safety laws.
The Occupational Health and Safety Act states that companies should provide a safe workstation, including any required training for managers and workers. Moreover, if any worker is injured during work, even with the best safety precautions in place, they might ask for employee compensation.
Job-Protected Leave Laws
When workers request time off or medical leave to address their medical concerns, the manager must refer them to HR. Of course, the manager will consider the requests that are fulfilling FMLA criteria. It could include references to the employees’ health condition. According to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), workers who have worked a minimum of 1,250 hours over the year are eligible to take unpaid, job-protected leave for particular medical and family reasons.
However, the manager or supervisor must maintain a connection with the employees on leave. He should keep HR informed of everything regarding those workers on leave. Lastly, the manager should keep all the information confidential and other law-related responsibilities that their company has defined.