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Employment discrimination
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An Employee’s Rights In The Workplace
Employee rights, work place law, employee rights law
1. The Definition of a Contract
Basically, a contract is an official oral or written understanding between
two or more parties which when breached can cause one or both parties
to take a legal action or conversely stop one or both parties from doing
something which will violate of the agreement. Generally a contract is
mutually favorable to all the parties involved and could be enforced legally.
For instance, you will have your house renovated. It would be safe for
you to come into an official agreement with your contractor to define
the obligations of each party. The contractor enters into an agreement
to renovate your house which is something you want and important to you
and when you pay for services rendered, this is something the contractor
wants and important for his/her business to grow.
An employment contract in the same manner will contain a definite offer
indicating the terms and conditions that goes with the offer. If a prospective
employee deems that all the conditions are acceptable, then he/she will
accept the contract. Staying in the job and doing the work expected of
him/her is an indication that the employee intends to keep the job and
the employer finds the employment of value and highly acceptable to him.
However, not all agreements can be enforced legally. For example you promised
a friend that she will be your date on an important event. So she prepares
for the event and even buys a new dress for it. Suddenly, your ex-girlfriend
came into the picture and she ended up being your date for that event.
You broke your promise to your friend but she cannot bring you to court
for that. Why, because there is nothing your friend had provided valuable
in return for the agreement for a date. For an agreement to be enforceable
in court, it must provide all involved parties with something of value
to them.
If any portion of the contract is not complied with by one of the contracting
parties, then the aggrieved party can file a court case to make the other
party fulfill his part of the bargain or compensate the other party if
there was loss including financial loss.
All employees working for a salary should have a contract with the employer.
The employee-employer relationship should be sealed with a contract. The
employee assents to doing a particular job for the employer and in return
the employer pays the agreed wages in return for the work done. If the
employer fails to pay the wages or if the employee fails to complete the
job based on set expectations, then the fundamental terms of the employment
contract has been violated.
2. Contracts on Black and White
Contracts that are put on paper are the most acknowledged form of employment
contract which generally consists of certain terms and conditions of the
employment. It will indicate the contract’s effectivity, wages, benefits
and the responsibilities of both parties. The contract will then have
to be signed by both parties – the employee and the employer. Almost certainly
individuals such as artists, top executives and athletes, among others,
own contracts written on black and white with specific terms and duration.
If the employer terminates the contract before that time, then there should
be a fair cause for dismissal.
Materials that are officially provided by the employer such as employee’s
manual, memorandum of agreement of understanding or letter offer or any
written communication that state guidelines or regulations are also forms
of contracts. However, these types of documents, though taking on the
form of a written contract, do not automatically become an enforceable
contract. It will have to have specific facts and situations. When it
comes to illegal dismissal, the document nust expressly indicate that
both parties did not aim for the employer-employee relationship to be
at will.
The employee should study the policies handed out to him/her to be certain
about the rules on dismissal. Look at all the employee’s manuals given
out by the employer from the very start of your employment up to your
dismissal. See if ther was any mention of assurance on security of tenure.
Scrutinize the causes for dismissal and determine if it applies to your
case or were you dismissed ‘at will’. If there is a written guideline
that explicity states that no dismissal will be done unless for valid
reasons, then this could be considered an enforceable contract.
If a black and white contract was violated by the employer, then the employee
has all the right to file a case against the employer and claim for financial
damages caused by the dismissal. This could include back wages, benefits
as well as the cost for finding another job. Going to court is of course
the last resort, as you should first try to reach an amicable resolution
of the conflict.
3. Verbal contracts
Verbal agreements could also be enforceable although on a lesser degree
than written cntracts. Why, because verbal agreements are almost impossible
to prove. There is hope though, more so if there were witnesses to the
verbal promise made by your employer.
4. Implicit contracts
There are other types of contracts that can be honored in court. In some
employment scenarios, employment conditions may just be indirectly stipulated
as it has been a long standing practice in the workplace. These can be
considered as implicit contracts.
Policies on meting out discipline, assurance of job tenure and the practice
of the employer in the past as regards to the procedure followed before
dismissal can be considered as precedents that could be cited as evidence
of implicit contracts. The employee has to have a good knowledge of the
company policies and note if your contract is implicit as to the reasons
for which you can be dismissed.
On some circumstances, a word given by your employer can be legally imposed
regardless if the employee gave out nothing valuable in return for the
employer’s commitment. In order for a promise to be legally imposable
the following should be evident:
? That your employer promised to fulfill something;
? And you held on to this promise;
? That your confidence on the fulfillment of this promise was realistic;
? That waiting for the promise that was not fulfilled caused you a lot
of aggravation and financial loss
? To restitute your losses and to preclude unfair labor practice the promise
has to be fulfilled
Let us give you a good illustration of a case of an employee to show "detrimental
reliance". A marketing excutive has been employed by a company for
the past ten years. He found an opportunity to be considered for a position
in a competitor company which offered him a much better package, with
a car plan to boot. As he informed his employer that he will be leaving
his position, the President of the company short of promised him heaven
and the earth if he will stay and promised him he can stay in the company
for as long as he want if he will continue his good performance. He further
said that being a consistent good performer, his stay in the company will
be nothing less than guaranteed. Flaterred by the company president’s
praises and content with the assurance of having a job for a long time,
he decided to cancell his application with the other company and to stay
on in his present job. You will never guess what happened next, because
after several weeks his immediate boss invented an offense and said he
is dismissed and the President of the company corroborated his dismissal.
You can see in this example that the employer explicity guaranteed the
employee’s security in the job provided he maintains his good performance.
Because he relied on the assurance of his employer, the employee had let
go of an excellent job opportunity, much better that his current job,
which is absolutely damaging. Anybody can see how foul and unfair this
will be because not only did the president not make good on his promise,
it appears that he tricked the poor employee to miss out on a good oppotunity.
Following this trend of thought, the employee does have a right to demand
that the President’s promise be enforced and get back what he lost because
of believing in his promise. It will be advisable for the employee to
get the advice of a labor lawyer if he/she strongly believes that there
is "detrimental reliance” in his/her case.
6. The contract taken in good faith and equitable transaction
The individuals participating in this kind of transaction have the obligation
to act in good faith and equitable transaction” towards the other parties.
Generally, the obligation does not only apply to the firing of an employee.
But some of the states use this agreement to employer-employee relationship
and allow an aggrieved employee to file a legal case for the employer’s
lack of good faith.
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