Employment Law

In every large firm, there has to be a human resource manager and each has various responsibilities. They are in charge of employee welfare to ensure that the needs of employees are well catered for .This will in turn ensure that that they are taken care off. Employees can at any one time, become disabled while at the work place, and it can be in a temporary form. There are certain laws, which apply to employees, who become temporarily disabled at the work place. This act came into being after the efforts of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (Cabrelli, 2007). Most times, they are two types of benefits, which occur as a result of temporary disability. They are the temporary partial and temporary total benefits.

In order to qualify for these benefits, a doctor must be consulted .The doctor must ensure that they are treating the employee. The WSIB must be made aware that the employee has a medical problem or an injury, which is work related. This means that they are not in a position to work for some time. In the case of temporary total benefits, the employee is awarded a substantial amount of money. This means that they are entitled to a take-home-pay of 90%, as a result of being injured, while at the work place. The benefits are awarded as long as the doctor approves of the situation (Cabrelli, 2007). WSIB must approve everything the doctor is recommending; otherwise they will not award the employee any benefits. Also, in the future, the employee must prove that they can work, to the WISB. If the employee is not likely to improve, WISB will not continue awarding the benefits to the injured employee. The employee will thus be given their pension, and if the employee improves, they will be given their temporary benefits. This is after a thorough assessment by the WISB.

There are many times when conflict arises between civil rights and collective bargaining, as a result of contract rights. An example of a situation in real life is when a school board is at conflict with a union for teachers. In collective bargaining, there are certain resolutions and obligations, which have to be met. This means that in any bargaining agreement, there has to be good faith and exclusivity. An example of where conflict arises in such matters is in school boards whether private or public. This is because according to the schools unions, they are entitled to extreme exclusivity. The bargaining unit and the collective interests of the elected union are bargained through good faith. Good faith is extremely essential in all the different processes, as the situation is bound to become heated and intense.

It must be known that in an agreement of collective bargaining, certain constitutional and statutory provisions cannot be contradicted or violated. This agreement should also ensure that contract rights are recognized (Cabrelli, 2007). Social and political freedom, as well as equality, is a civil right of every human being. According to the National Labor Relations, good faith is an extremely important issue. This is because elements of cooperation, fairness and openness, ought to exist. The school board and the teachers union may engage in negotiations and not come to an agreement. The disputes are sometimes not solved even though good faith is involved and this is known as legal impasse. This means that suspension of active bargaining occurs as a result of the impasse. For this case to be solved mediation occurred and it took a long time before the parties came to an agreement. People have civil rights, which should not be violated.

Employees in an organization should ensure that the existing conditions at the work place favour their work. This is known as ergonomics and more should be known about this essential work place aspect. Through ergonomics, employees become satisfied, increase their productivity and also the risk of injury as well as illness is reduced. There are many situations, which pose a risk for employees at the work place, which might cause disorders of the musculoskeletal. An example of how such an issue can occur is through constantly carrying objects, which are extremely heavy or pulling them (Opsvik, 2009). If they do this kind of job on a daily basis, they are bound to become injured. This might in turn pose serious consequences to the employee and may suffer from problems related to the musculoskeletal. In such cases, something needs to be done to ensure that there are no more further injuries. These include transferring the employee to another department, where risk is less, taking them to a specialist, among other things.

The Labor occupational Safety & Heath Administration (2011) has come with guidelines concerning this issue. This is because it is known that employees working in certain sectors of the economy such as manufacturing and mining occur frequently. The guidelines ensure that musculoskeletal injuries at the work place are reduced. They assist employers in knowing how to control and recognize risk factors of ergonomics. The information provided is extremely helpful in many ways.

References

Cabrelli, David. (2007). Employment Law (Law Express).New York: Longman.

Opsvik, Peter. (2009) .Re-Thinking Sitting” Interesting insights on the history of the chair and how we sit from an ergonomic pioneer. New York: Prentice Hall.

The United States Department of Labor Occupational Safety & Health Administration. (2011). Safety and Health Topics: Ergonomics.