Some employer/employee relationships and interactions have to be governed and mandated by law. With this in mind, here are several legal obligations that employers need to consider regarding their employees.
The relationship between employers and employees is a symbiosis based on human society and has worked for millennia in various forms. Nonetheless, in order to ensure that it’s a healthy business relationship and not exploitation, some ground rules have to be determined. In normal circumstances, common sense and intuition would be enough to govern this, yet, this is a chance that a modern society simply cannot take. Therefore, some of these relationships and interactions have to be governed and mandated by law. With this in mind, here are several legal obligations that employers need to consider regarding their employees.
Providing Wage Reports
Apart from paying your employees, you should also report to your employees on their earnings. Withholding and deductions are completely legal but doing so without notifying them is not. A standard employee wage report should have the address, name and social security number of the employee. Next, it also needs to contain the information on the employer like a federal tax ID number, the name of the employer, as well as their address and zip code. Then, you need to show all tax withholdings like social security, healthcare, and federal income tax. On the other hand, you also need to include the number of tips that the employee has reported, as well as make a mention of any dependent care benefits.
Defining the Workplace
Another thing you should keep in mind is that some employers abuse the fact that their workplace is poorly described or defined. As a result, they keep adding responsibilities, without feeling obliged to give the employee in question a wage raise, a promotion or even allow them to move laterally in order to a position better suited to their new tasks. In order to avoid this, as an employer, you need to post an accurate job description as soon as you decide to start recruiting. In this way, you can later be immune to various accusations of fraud and even avoid being accused of deliberately misleading your employees.
Health Insurance
In some parts of the world, health insurance isn’t mandatory, which makes some of the less ethical corporations and conglomerates flock there in order to save money. However, uninsured people are definitely less motivated, which means that even if in some places this wasn’t illegal, it would still be a good idea for you as an employer to consider its perks. Lack of proper health care throws a mental burden on your employees, making it harder for them to focus and feel motivated. Moreover, small businesses don’t even have to go with major healthcare companies but can look for independent Provider toolkit NDIS offers.
Providing Adequate Breaks
One of the things that a lot of business owners don’t pay that much attention to is the fact that daily and weekly rest breaks are mandatory by law, so are the rest periods. You see, some employees don’t mind working extra hours, same as they don’t mind skipping a break. Nevertheless, for an average employee, an average working week should not exceed 48 hours. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule and in some industries, this average is calculated over the course of 4, 6 or 12 months. Still, these exceptions:
- Need to be based on an agreement between employees and the employer and
- Meet the requirements of the applicable laws.
Providing Safety in the Workplace
Finally, as an entrepreneur, it’s up to you to secure a certain safety standard, as well as to provide the safety necessary equipment. In most cases, this is something related to the use of various substances and exposure to outside elements, yet, sometimes it is also closely related to your company’s internal structure. This means that you should also keep an eye out for improper behavior of your employees, as well as the conduct of your lower management towards the employees. One last thing, certain situations require you to issue special protective clothing for your employees.
Generally speaking, the law is there to protect both the employee and an employer. Sure, at times it may seem a bit one-sided (depending on your perspective of things), nevertheless, its main role is to ensure that every side is treated fairly. In the era of lawsuits and general mistrust, these laws are more of an entrepreneur safety net than they are an obstacle.
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