Governments have laws within countries which affect equal employment opportunities. Basically meaning people should be treated equally when in the workplace & when recruited. If a man & women were equally well qualified they should be treated equally for the possible job. This also applies to disability, race and religion.
Therefore businesses must: Be careful when wording an advertisement for a job. They must say ‘person’ Treat all applications equally Recruit & promote staff on merit alone
IN PAIRS COME UP WITH ONE JOB ADVERTISMENT WHICH WOULD BE LEGAL AND ONE THAT WOULD NOT BE. A few will be read out in class to find out if we can tell the difference.
Can you see the discrimination in these: Single professional needed for office job. Salesman wanted for selling black and white umbrellas Office job for mature applicant, weekend work required. Italian waiter needed for new Italian restaurant opening.
What are the employee rights? Unfair discrimination Health & safety Unfair dismissal Wage protection
Health & safety at work… Workers cost a lot for businesses to recruit & train so keeping them safe is important Workers are motivated by good working conditions (remember the chapter ‘motivation’) Work more efficiently Potentially stay with the business longer. Why are Health & Safety laws good to a business?
Can you think of any laws which would improve an employees health & safe at work? Come up with 4 things..
Countries that don’t have strict laws Can you name a few? Unfortunately there are still places where workers are exploited, paid low wages & have to experience horrible working conditions. More positively some business make ethical decisions to increase the health & safety of workers in these countries. Ethical decision – decision taken by business because of the moral code observed by the firm.
Wage protection… There will be a contract of employment (can we remember what is in them) Who much will be paid / how often / what will be deducted i.e. taxes Workers have the right to be paid for the work they do!
A legal minimum wage ADVANTAGES People will be able to afford more to spend Encourage more people into work Encourage training to make them more productive Prevent exploiting unskilled workers
A legal minimum wage DISADVANTAGES Increase business costs which may increase prices Higher skilled workers may request more in wages – rises prices May have to make some employees redundant
Protection against unfair discrimination Some employers will discriminate unfairly against people applying for a job, examples like: Race / skin colour / religion Sex / age / disability If an employee feels unfairly discriminated against they can appeal this to an equal opportunities committee Come up with an example of this now in your pairs.. Discrimination means to make a choice, this choice will be based on unfair reasons!
Protection against unfair dismissal In the UK, if you feel you have been dismissed unfairly you would take your case to an industrial tribunal. An industrial tribunal is a legal meeting to discuss complaints of possible unfair discrimination &/or dismissal An employer would need to have followed procedures when being able to dismiss a worker!
Activity 8.9 This could be the style of question in your exam, use your book and notes as reference to answer the question as best you can