1. Describe the pros and cons of government legislation on issues of employment and give some specific examples of employment law.
There are various employment laws in place in USA such as at-will employment, minimum wage for employees and title VII. At-will employment policy gives the employer the right to hire and fire employees at will without any legal liability at any time without any reason or for a petty reason, excluding an illegal one (NSCL). This policy also gives employees the privilege to quit the job at any time without notice or within a short notice of 7-15 days depending on the agreement between employers and employees. Employees can also bargain for a raise if they get a better offer. This policy allows the employers to fire any employee who is less productive. Further, employers can modify the terms of employment at will without any prior notice. For instance, an employer can stop benefits, decrease paid time off and alter wages. The major disadvantage of this policy for employees is that it leaves them susceptible to sudden arbitrary dismissal and undeclared cuts in benefits and remuneration. For employers too, this policy causes problems because employers invest a great amount of money training employees and if these employees suddenly leave the organization then it gives a monetary blow to the company. What is worse, the employees can use
the skills they learned while working with the company to benefit the direct competitors against the company.
Minimum wage law is effective in USA since 1938 with nearly all the states mandating their own minimum wages. Minimum wage law prohibits an employer from paying wages below the stipulated amount. However, this law has its pros and cons. A minimum wage encourages unskilled and unemployed individuals to find jobs and fend for themselves with a guaranteed income. During weak economy, these unskilled workers working part-time can be incorporated for a full time job in a company due to their minimum wages and the cost cutting measures to avoid training new employees. However, minimum wage discourages employees from hiring new employees. Further, employers in order to compensate for the extra cost in paying minimum wages to unskilled employees reduce benefits for employees and cut work hours.
The title vii of Civil Rights Act issued in 1964 protects both the existing employees of a company and the potential employees or the job candidates from discriminatory biases. This law prevents employers from hiring and eliminating a candidate because of his color, sex, religion, race and national origin. The employer cannot further fire, promote or assign works on the basis of discrimination. The employer cannot harass and determine someone's wage, benefits, disability leave and retirement plans on the basis of anything classified as discrimination. Further, Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) prohibits employment discrimination against anyone aged over 40 years and older. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) prevents the employment discrimination against pregnant women. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) states that an employer cannot refuse to hire, promote or discharge a qualified individual because of a disability. The pros of title VII is that it has been successful to a great extent in eliminating all kinds of discriminatory practices in the work place. Compared to the work environment that existed even a decade back, the work environment in most of the organizations today is employee friendly with employees of different culture and ethnicities working together in happy harmony.
However, there are several cons to title VII. Though Title VII has removed the more blatant exhibition of prejudice in the workplace, the discrimination against minority that prevails still has become more of a subtle form of bias. But when bias exists in sophisticated form in a subtle manner, it becomes more unidentifiable. Therefore, many a time women and colored people become more hyper vigilant trying to see bias where it is not there. Furthermore, many a time employees don't report a discriminatory act out of fear for retaliation. Title VII still in practice doesn't provide enough protection for people complaining of discrimination. Title VII is also oblivious to the difficulty faced by employees in perceiving discrimination. Currently the filing period is unusually short only of 180 days with an extension allowed up to 300 if the charge is registered by a state and local antidiscrimination law (Brake 2009). Such short time is not always enough for an employee to identify discrimination and report against it.
2. Describe what must be contained in a writing to have the writing qualified as a negotiable instrument.
Negotiable instruments are written documents that bear the unconditional promises of paying a specific sum of money to someone on demand or on a scheduled time. Checks, bills of exchange, drafts, promissory notes and certificates of deposit are all negotiable instruments. This sort of document may be transferred from the payee to another person known as holder in due course through valid negotiation of the instrument. Once the document is transferred, the holder in due course becomes legally entitled to the instrument. The negotiable instrument should be written in accordance with the rules of UCC or Uniform Commercial Code.
In order for a document to be considered valid as negotiable instrument, it must satisfy four requirements. Firstly, the document must be in writing signed by the maker or drawee. Signing involves using any signature or stamp or thumbprints. Secondly, the document must contain an order (bill of exchange) or unconditional promise as in promissory note to pay a fixed amount of money and it must not contain any other promise other than these two. A document containing any additional promise becomes non-negotiable. Thirdly, the amount of money as promised in the negotiable instrument must be either payable on demand or on a stated time and fourthly, the promised amount of money is payable either to a bearer or to order which means that the instrument may either contain the name of a definite party the money would be payable to or whoever ordered as nominee. Until the holder of the document makes an order for a nominee, the money cannot be transferred. In order for the money to be transferrable, the holder can sign the back of the instrument, writing an order.
3. Describe four (4) ways to acquire ownership of personal property.
Property is of two types - Real Property and Personal Property. Real property is immovable involving lands and things adjoined to it such as houses, minerals and so on. Personal property is moveable having nothing to do with lands and it is of two types - tangible and intangible. Tangible personal property involves items which one can touch, see and feel like jewelry, livestock, cars, household goods and farm machinery. Intangible personal property involves papers like stocks, insurance policies, bonds, contracts and bank accounts (Urich).
Ownership of personal property either could be acquired either through gifts or through non-gifts. In case of gifts, the donor must give his personal belongings as gifts to the donee who must be willing to accept them. There are four ways a personal property can be acquired through non-gift ways:
Firstly, the owner of the personal property must be willing to sell his belongings so that others can acquire the ownership making a purchase in exchange for money or other valuable consideration.
Secondly, Secondly, one may take possession of personal property which is lost, mislaid or abandoned. Personal property is deemed to be lost if the owner unintentionally lost it and doesn't know about its location. Anybody finding the lost items can take possession of them against everybody else except the rightful owner. Abandoned property means items intentionally relinquished of all rights by the owner and hence it can be possessed by whoever first demands dominion over it claiming it his own. Mislaid goods mean that an owner has misplaced an item intentionally and is unable to find it later on. Anyone finding the mislaid goods doesn't have right to possession unless it is found in the place of his own real property.
Thirdly, someone can acquire ownership of personal property by creating or producing it. For instance, one becomes the owner of a bank account by creating an account in the bank and saving his money there.
Finally, acquisition of personal property can be made through accession which means that if someone adds value to an existing property by personal efforts and materials, then he may acquire ownership of the item. However, such ownership is open to challenge if the accession was wrongfully done beyond the knowledge of the original owner and the accession enormously improved the value of the property or changed its form completely such as turning a timber into furniture, turning grapes into wine and so on.
Work Cited
Urich, Judith R. Ownership of Property. University of Arkansas. Web. 29 Aug. 2013 <http://www.uaex.edu/Other_Areas/publications/pdf/FSHEC-40.pdf>
Personal Property. The Free Dictionary. Web. 29 Aug. 2013 <http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/personal+property>
Brake, Deborah. The Limits of Title VII as a Rights-Claiming System, University of Pittsburgh School of Law. 2009. Web. 29 Aug. 2013 <http://www.law.pitt.edu/magazine/spring-2007/the-limits-of-title-vii-as-a-rights-claiming-system>
Property Classification. Sam Houston State University (SHSU). Web. 29 Aug. 2013 <http://www.shsu.edu/~klett/487%20overview%20of%20property.htm>
