Source: Image of scales, woman in suit, woman 2 in suit, man in suit, circle, images by Video Scribe, License held by Jeff Carroll.
Hi. I'm Jeff. And in this lesson, we'll learn about the legal considerations an organization must take in relation to its employees. We'll also talk about the rights of employees in the workplace. So let's get started.
Numerous laws have been passed to protect the rights of employees with the intent to eliminate discrimination and improve worker safety. All organizations must abide by these laws. The three major laws are the Fair Labor Act, this law guarantees minimum wages for work, defines a standard workweek, and determines how overtime pay is provided when employees work more than the standard week. The Equal Pay Act, this law provides equal pay for men and women. And the Civil Rights Act, this law ensures no organization may discriminate against an employee based on their race, color, religion, or origin.
It is also illegal for any organization to discriminate against a protected class, which is a group from which the members are legally protected from discrimination, but it is always advisable for any organization to treat all employees equally. For example, before the Civil Rights Act some organizations would only hire white workers. And legally, it was difficult for an employee to fight a business that discriminated in this manner. After the Civil Rights Act, race, color, and origin became part of the protected classes.
Equal employment opportunity is a series of laws and movements intended to eliminate discrimination of people based on gender. Organizations should proactively take steps under the EEO to avoid this type of discrimination. There is also the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, sometimes referred to as OSHA. It was passed to protect workers from dangerous situations in the workplace and to provide guidelines for organizational safety.
OSHA covers many aspects of workplace safety, including avoiding hazardous materials and regulating the amount of activity production workers can engage in. It is also recently expanded to include modern worker issues, such as ergonomic safety. Organizations should also have plans in place to eliminate sexual harassment in the workplace.
Sexual harassment is a form of harassment in which unwanted sexual advances or obscene remarks are made. Two specific examples of harassment are quid pro quo harassment, which is a form of harassment in which an inappropriate trade of benefits is suggested, and the creation of a hostile work environment, which is a workplace where a reasonable employee would feel unwelcome and unsafe. And finally, no organization should discriminate based on age. This is a type of discrimination, which unfairly discriminates against a person because of his or her age.
OK, great job. In this lesson, we learned about some of the laws that govern organizations, interactions with employees. We talked about protected classes. We reviewed the EEO and OSHA laws, and we discussed some of the different types of discrimination and harassment. Thanks for your time, and have a great day.
