Legal Issues and Disciplinary Action
Develop, analyze, and explain requirements that could be used in the personnel selection process for management positions in the company
Employment in the US has evolved over time. The process has seen to it marked changes that have resulted in a shift in the workplace. A company’s culture determines its profitability and also its productivity. Employment law has been tasked with the mandate of developing an organization’s culture. Employer-employee relationships have been strengthened with the advent of the Employment law. The US gives a clear picture of the cultural advancement has in fact, shaped the workforce in current times. Many activities are the outcome of the employment law which is currently in force full throttle in organizations in present times. Labor unions in the US have had a strong influence on the path taken by the employment law over the past fifteen decades. Legal issues play a role in the manner in which selection procedures among other processes that go on in the work set up (Editorial Boards, 2016).
There are laws, as earlier mentioned, that were developed and which are governed by the EEOC. These are the laws that are mentioned above, which are meant to limit multiple types of discrimination against employees or would-be employees. The U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (n.d) highlights the laws as follows: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA). This was followed by The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Sections 102 and 103 of the Civil Rights Act of 1991, Sections 501 and 505 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008. The organization’s culture should be in a position to support each of the above mentioned Acts. Any information that the Act advises against, the agencies must comply. Organization culture is currently taking place effectively when senior management support is evident. As earlier mentioned, the company’s culture has a role to play in the development of employment Acts, in the same thread, a company that supports the laws that govern the welfare of its employees will not only grow as a company, the employment-related acts would advance with regards to their scope. Therefore, during staffing, cases of bias concerning but not limited to pregnancy, disability (in both the government and private sectors), race, sex, religion, pay, genetic information and so on. Reports that mention any form of the discrimination would result in awards of compensatory damages especially if the discrimination was intentional. What is clear from the above legal policies is that prohibition against discrimination is not only felt or experienced during personnel selection only, the prohibition against discrimination is felt during other processes that pertain to staff in the workplace. Criteria that looks into personnel selection addresses the information located in the laws governed by the EEOC. The job advertisements that are created ought to be in line with the federal regulations. In personnel selection processes, the managers must know what they want as far as the employees are concerned. Getting the right workforce is highly desirable in the workplace (Editorial Board, 2016). Having an insight on the individual that the company seeks to have on board in the business is needed.
Fairness is important, and this brings us back to the legal policies that are above mentioned. The systems root support for anti-discriminatory practices during employee selection. The final point touches on the employer carrying out extensive research from references provided by the job applicant. Double checks bring out new information about the candidates which can be clarified during interviews or an applicant with questionable attributes noted from the references can be passed at an earlier point. If allowed rights of access, an employer can look further into sites that expound more on the candidate for a position in the organization. The questions asked during interviews have to be in line with the Federal regulations i.e. consistent with the EEOC guidelines (Editorial Board, 2016). The questions must not at any given point be deemed to portray any form of discrimination but should rather be accommodating to the candidates called for interviews.
With the social media craze that is trending, rights to workplace privacy for job applicants and employees, in general, has dwindled. Sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram just to mention a few can give details about a job applicant regarding race, religion, national origin, color, disability among other important yet private information (Editorial Board, 2016). Previous criminal offenses are notable from the social media plus other sites and an employer stumbling upon such information that is mentioned here may result in prejudice and or discrimination during the staffing process. Such occurrences must be limited by according individuals their right to privacy unless allowed the rights to personal information. Determine and explain the specific methods by which job analysis, job design, position description, and specification for management positions are prepared.
Moving on into the next phases that occur within the organization such as job design, analysis, description, and specification, there are legal issues that govern the processes therein. What is commendable is the fact that with the presence and passage of the American's With Disabilities Act (ADA, 1990), certain attributes in the workplace have had a new form of meaning. What is notable is the process of job analysis (HR-guide, 2015). A job analysis is mainly used can be used to offer definition to the essential elements or functions of the job. The core elements, in this case, include the physical demands that the work requires. The Act, in fact, mentions that consideration is to be provided by the employer who in his judgment, is aware or conversant with the functions of the job that are essential. Upon writing a description of a job opportunity by the employer, which happens before even the advertisement and interviewing stages, the written description becomes considered as part of the evidence of the essential elements or functions of the job.
The ADA requires that individuals with limited abilities are given some form of accommodation that is deemed to be reasonable in the workplace. When this is done, the physically challenged individuals will not have to play victims of being unreasonably scraped out from employment opportunities (Mitra, 2002). Job Analysis is a process that is not only limited to the identification of the roles to be taken by the ideal candidate, including the duties that the individual will perform on the job, but the equipment to be used are also of importance when noting down the job analysis. The above information concerning the duties to be taken up and the surrounding factors are helpful especially in the determination of the reasonable accommodations that could be set in place for an individual to perform the job at hand. Job Analysis, in summary, assists in the role in identification the as well as the determination of the reasonable accommodations may be made to facilitate proper work functioning. Also, A job analysis attempts to describe all important work behaviors, their central importance, plus any given difficulty and the levels that a given pressure is to be experienced.
Job design should be consistent with the legal policies as well. Legal and policy issues are evident in work design. Possible threats of any form of litigation or process malpractices result in the creation of a tendency to promote work standardization procedures. This is evident in fields like healthcare. Fear of legal or political outcomes can also stifle job crafting, role innovation, and other proactive efforts to redesign one’s work. A good example is when in the public sector environments, deviations from the norm can attract negative media publicity. A further issue is that procedures involved in transitioning people back to work after injuries or illnesses frequently take into account physical aspects of the work, but neglect consideration of psychosocial issues such as the motivational and relational qualities of the work (Grant et al., 2010). Carrying out of research can bring to light the characteristics of a job that are more important for people who have been off work because of high levels of anxiety about those who are experiencing high levels of depression.
Unionization defines the job design and in this case, knowledge of whether a job opportunity is represented or non-represented is mandatory. Labor relations govern unionization, and the phenomenon determines the relationship between the unions and the management (Grant et al., 2010). The labor relations law dictates the changes like work and governance at the workplace. Other factors are political changes, collective bargaining, and the labor relations laws also govern conflict in the place of work. Understanding of the requirements of contracts and labor laws must be well done to have an insight to the ins and outs of unions in the workplace. The organ of law that governs collective bargaining is the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The law grants employees the right to bargain collectively and join trade unions. The NLRA sets the procedures for the selection of a labor organization to represent a section of employees in collective bargaining. Collective bargaining is a process where negotiations to determine the terms of employment are made between the employer and a group of employees protected under the union. Collective bargaining agreements offer protection not only from discrimination, wages and working hours but also health and safety issues (Editorial Board, 2016). Safety standards ought to be adhered to by both the employers and employees.
After carrying out job analysis based on the requirements of ADA, a job description can be arrived at. A job description gives a clear-cut identification of the roles that an individual in a vacant job opportunity will take up. In such a case, required credentials of an applicant are noted in job descriptions and these descriptions are meant to discourage unqualified applicants. Apart from providing bases for the creation of questions to ask during interviews, determination of salary increments, completion of performance appraisals, career progression planning, job descriptions provide a layout for legal defense. A legal case may arise when in fact an applicant complains of discrimination in either one of the areas mentioned above. When for instance the EEOC undertakes research to identify the truthfulness of an accusation of discrimination, an employer becomes liable for action under the civil law.
There is a push towards a union-free workplace. A union-free workplace can be arrived at by ensuring that there is just workplace practices and governance within the management team and business culture.
Explain and evaluate the relative worth of management jobs at the company and determine a compensation structure to assist retention and career management of this important element of the company's human resources.
Establishing a comparable worth plan usually involves four basic steps which are noted down as follows: Application of a single job evaluation procedure for all jobs in a particular section. Posts with similar job evaluation outcome are worth being paid similarly. General gender representation should be in a place where a percentage of females and males are noted. The wage to job evaluation should be biased towards the pay offered to men in the male-dominated jobs given that such positions are considered not to have any occurrence of pay discrimination (Mitra, 2002). There are possible reasons that are linked to the variation in pay in organizations. This is attributed differences in employees, unions, employee work behaviors, work, the labor market and the onset of discrimination.
The Federal government is deemed to be important in decision-making compensation policies. The key issues that are important when determining the pay structure are ensuring that fairness is observed, the minimum wage is well adhered to and that employee exploitation is kept at bay.
Mitra (2002) explains that the pay laws evolution in the US has evolved in the following order of chronology: Davis-Bacon Act then the Copeland Act then, Walsh, Healey Act, Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Equal Pay Act and Title VII of Civil Rights Act. There is also the Service Contract Act, Age Discrimination Act, Wage Garnishment Law, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Pregnancy Discrimination Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, Civil Rights Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Finally, we have the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), Small Business Job Protection Act and the Mental Health Act.
It is quite evident that the government’s policies affect compensation which in turn affects the supply and demand of labor. It is also apparent that legislation affects changes in the workplaces. Compensation structures always employee satisfaction and motivation, therefore, managers need to come up with, implement, and monitor pay structures. Failure to align pay structures appropriately poses a hurdle when it comes to retaining the best talent (Editorial Board, 2016). When setting the compensatory structures, companies should be aware of the policies that govern the pay schemes.
Conclusion
References
Editorial Board. (2016). Capital Management to Development world. Retrieved from https://ebooksbvd.my-education-connection.com/9781943926565/9781943926565_xhtml#_idParaDest-1 on 29/06/2016
Grant, A. M., Fried, Y., Parker, S. K., & Frese, M. (2010). Putting job design in context: Introduction to the special issue. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 31(2‐3), 145-157.
HR- guide. (2015). Job Analysis: Law/Legal Issues: Federal Guidelines. Retrieved from http://www.job-analysis.net/G002.htm on 01/07/2016
Mitra, A. (2002). Managing the System. Retrieved from http://business.uni.edu/mitra/chap17.pdf on 01/07/2016
U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (n.d). Laws, Regulations, Guidance & MOUs. Retrieved from https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/titlevii.cfm on 01/07/2016
