The Most Important Things to Know About Employment Law.

 Employment laws are important because they help to assure fair play.

 If you are an employer, and have had to deal with workers for any length of time, you may well feel that the human race in general is lazy, deceitful and greedy. On the other hand if you have been in the work force as an employee for any length of time you may well suspect that a significant number of business owners would vote to repeal the amendment that outlawed slavery if they thought they could get away with it.

 Employers and employees don't always take such nasty views of each other of course. However, employment laws help to assure fairness in the work place by making it illegal to treat some people worse than others. It protects employers from incompetent or malicious employees. Employment law serves the country as a whole by trying to make sure that everyone is treated fairly in that place we spend so much of our waking hours; the work place.

 Individual states, and even local governments, can and do have their own laws regarding employment practices. For example, some localities may include sexual orientation or marriage status in a list of groups or classes protected against discrimination although the federal government does not, at this time do so. Still, over the years a number of significant acts pertaining to employment law have come out of Washington. Let's look at just a few.

 1) The Civil Rights Act of 1866. This prohibited discrimination based on race in regard to contracts entered between an employer and employee, specifically meaning hiring and firing. The date is significant, of course, since the civil war had ended just the year before. One result of the civil war had been the end of slavery. Many will tell you that the civil war was not about slavery but about state's rights. However, it could also be asserted that the bloodiest war in our nation's history had employment law as a core issue.

 2) Title VII The Civil Rights Act of 1964. This prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex and national origin.

 3) Fair Labour Standards Act. This is the law that established minimum wage. It also provided for criteria to govern how old children needed to be before they could work. The requirement that overtime to be paid to a worker who exceeded 40 hours in a given week came from this act as well.

 4) Age discrimination act. Discrimination in hiring, firing and assigning work against someone over the age of 40 is prohibited.

 5) American's with Disabilities Act. This law, established in 1993 requires employers not to discriminate against a person based on a disability if the disability is the only reason they couldn't fulfil the job requirements of. It also calls for an employer to make reasonable workplace accommodations to make it possible for the individual to work.

There are several other federal laws which pertain to the work place. The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Act provides certain rights to employees who goes on military duty. The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 provides 12 weeks of unpaid leave to employees of a year or longer in certain situations involving the employee or a close family member. Benefits that have been accrued cannot be lost and health care coverage must continue to be paid. Federal laws also require employees to verify an employee's right to work in the United States. The new health care laws also have items that affect employers and employees.

Employment law, can and does originate on the state and even the local level. All employers do well to get a good grasp on it Employees too need a basic understanding of their rights and obligations in the work place. This can be accomplished by each business or company compiling and passing out a booklet of the company’s policies.

Besides the various laws designed to prevent discrimination there are several other areas of employment law of which to be aware. These include:

 1) Laws pertaining to hiring and firing

 2) Regulations governing unemployment compensation and worker's compensation

 3) OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) rules that apply to your type of business.

 4) Compensation law.

 5) Record keeping.

 Employment law is important and must be followed.