What Are Employee Rights?
As a nation, we’ve been trying to navigate employee rights for nearly a century. The first notable move toward employee protection occurred in 1931 with the Davis-Bacon Act. From there, employee rights have continued to evolve.
As an employer, it is crucial that you stay up-to-date with employee rights. Nothing can threaten the stability and longevity of a business like worker’s rights violations.
The question is, what are employee rights today? What laws and regulations do you need to uphold in your work environment?
Read on to find out more about the employee rights that you need to follow in 2021.
The Basics: What Are Employee Rights and What Happens If They’re Violated?
What do we mean when we’re talking about employee rights? We’re talking specifically about rights your employees possess in any workplace as guaranteed by law. These rights come down from federal, state, and local governments, so it is important to familiarize yourself with all three.
Why is it important that you remain vigilant and uphold employee rights? When you violate an employee’s rights, you open the door to litigation. Repeated violations can lead to investigations of your business and result in the destruction of your business.
Employee rights are fair and easy to honor. Let’s take a look at some of the most important rights your employees are guaranteed by law.
Employee Rights and Discrimination
Anti-discrimination laws are the ones we see violated most often in American workplaces. At their most basic level, anti-discrimination laws should protect your employees from harassment or discrimination based upon gender, sex (including sexual orientation), race, ethnicity, religion, disability, and age.
Some examples of anti-discrimination employee rights in action include your employees’ rights to:
- equal pay for equal work
- accommodations for temporary or permanent disabilities
- accommodations based on certain religious needs
- protection against retaliation for speaking up about workplace discrimination
Participating in corporate seminars regarding diversity, unconscious biases, and microaggressions will make you better equipped to eliminate discrimination in the workplace.
Employee Rights to Fair Wages
Chances are, you’re familiar with the concept of minimum wage. Minimum wage refers to the minimum amount of hourly pay you can legally pay your employees.
Currently, the federal minimum wage is $7.25. However, there have been discussions under the current administration of raising the minimum wage, possibly to $15.
Some states require a different minimum wage. For example, California recently raised its minimum wage to $14. State-legislated minimum wage may never go lower than the federal minimum wage.
Employee Rights to Workplace Safety
Since 1970, employers have been required to meet workplace health and safety standards as designated by OSHA. OSHA is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA’s role is to evaluate working circumstances in different industries and create laws to protect health and safety for all employees.
OSHA regulations vary from industry to industry. You will need to conduct further research to ensure that your work environment meets these standards.
Examples of what OSHA regulations impact include:
- proper usage of machinery
- required protective gear
- maximum work hours per employee per week
- temperature extremes
- noise levels
- injury protection from repetitive motions
- chemical hazards
Ultimately, it is your job as an employer to make sure that everyone is following OSHA guidelines. You must provide things like required protective gear. You must teach and enforce proper techniques for things like heavy lifting and machinery usage.
Employee Rights to Privacy
To what degree do employees have a right to privacy? What information are they allowed to withhold and what information are they required to share? What are you legally allowed to do with that information once attained?
Employee rights regarding privacy are arguably the trickiest. For example, while your employees are not required to disclose information about their medical history, there are times when a doctor’s note may be required for absences.
The current pandemic has brought the issue of privacy into a new light. Ultimately, the language surrounding positive cases of COVID-19 and employee requirements is vague. The expectation is that positive employees will notify their employer, who will then notify other employees of the positive case–but not the individual who has COVID.
Another area of concern when it comes to employee rights and privacy is drug testing. If you suspect that substance abuse caused a workplace accident, can you require employees to take a drug test? Find out more about how this works in this complete guide to post-accident drug testing.
One thing is clear. If and when an employee does share sensitive information with an employer, the employer must keep this information private. Things like medical history and sensitive personal information are not to be discussed with other employees.
Worker’s Compensation Laws
Worker’s compensation laws vary the most from state to state. These laws dictate how much worker’s compensation insurance an employer must carry based on things like the size of their business.
Worker’s compensation insurance comes into play when an employee requires medical attention for a workplace accident. This goes back to employee rights to health and safety. If an employer fails to cultivate a safe working environment and an employee suffers, the company is liable for that suffering.
Don’t Violate Employee Rights in Your Workplace
If you’re starting a new business or moving up in rank, it’s time to ask the question: what are employee rights? What legal obligations do you have to meet when employing other people? How can you minimize risk and avoid legal ramifications?
We hope that our quick guide has given you a sense of what employee rights are and the importance of honoring them.
Employee rights, along with the rest of the world, evolve every day. Stay tuned to our content and find out what’s going on around the world and in your neck of the woods.
