5 Crucial Employee Rights in the Workplace

Both those who are looking for employment and those who want to start a business of their own, need to be aware of five crucial employee rights that any modern enterprise is built around. By ensuring that the environment is fair, inclusive and employee-friendly, you’ll boost employee retention and drastically improve the morale of your team. However, these terms may seem a bit abstract or ambiguous, so, for those who are interested a bit more in their interpretation, here are top five crucial employee rights in the workplace.

1. They have their rights since the moment they apply

If you want to set some boundaries, what you need to do is ensure that these boundaries are set since the job application stage. An applicant has the right to be free of discrimination of any kind during the hiring process. Also, during the interview, there are some questions that a potential employer has no right to ask. Age or genetic information, disability, marital status, family and pregnancy, as well as the country of origin are questions that are illegal to ask. Things like one’s background, financial information or height/weight are a grey area and are, therefore, best left avoided.

2. A contract of employment

The next thing you need to keep in mind is the fact that as an employee, you have the right to be employed in a legal and transparent manner. What this means is that you A) have your contract of employment and B) that you’re not paid under the table. These two things, when applied properly, act as legal insulation for both parties, seeing as how without them, employees enjoy no legal protection and employers risk paying a massive fee or even having their business completely shut down.

3. Proper compensation in the case of an injury

In the case of a workplace injury or illness that’s preventing them from performing their duty, the livelihood of your employees might be endangered. Fortunately, with the help of agencies like Allan Snelling LLP Compelling Counsel, they might be able to use methods like superannuation to protect themselves financially. Keep in mind, nonetheless that this is not such an easy thing to get approved for, which is why they need to gather all the paperwork and properly file for this claim. Therefore, they might need some legal aid.

4. A workplace free of discrimination

There are a lot of reasons for the discrimination in the workplace and none of them is justified. Even when it comes to the most common cause of discrimination (the retaliation), holding a grudge and deliberately sabotaging someone based on their previous actions isn’t mature and, in most cases, even legal. Then, there are the causes of discrimination that are related to one’s age, gender, race, nationality or country of origin. Needless to say, other than being illegal, these types of discrimination are what makes for a hostile work environment. A hostile work environment always falls behind in both productivity and employee retention.

5. They are entitled to leave

This here is the right that some entrepreneurs prefer to ignore but this practice is both illegal and counterproductive. Not only will this make people want to leave your enterprise but it will also make them overworked, less motivated and less productive. In other words, while you will keep them in the office for several additional days every year, the overall productivity and the amount of work that gets done will be drastically lowered. Keep in mind that annual leave and time-off aren’t the only two things that they’re entitled off. They’re also entitled to family leave.

The very last thing you need to keep in mind is that adhering to each of the above-listed rights benefits you in several ways. First of all, you get the legal protection because you’re doing everything by the book. Second, you get a higher degree of employee loyalty and a lower abandonment rate. Finally, you get the moral satisfaction from knowing that you’ve honored your staff as best as you could.