Employment law is that area of law relating to employment. Also known as ‘labor law’, it covers judgments and precedents designed to protect the rights of workers and the organizations they work for. This helps regulate relations between unions, employers, employees and company candidates.
Labor law can be divided into two categories. These are ‘individual work right’ and ‘collective work right’ respectively. The first here refers, of course, to the laws regarding the rights of a person in his workplace, while the second refers to the relations between employees, companies and unions.
A lot of this will revolve around what are known as ’employment standards’, which are the established standards that are legally expected of employees for any employee and include things like minimum wages, working hours and more.
There are many organizations and individuals involved in regulating and upholding labor law. For example, the US Labor Standards Administration is an agency in the United States that is concerned with ensuring that labor laws are made and enforced. Meanwhile, employees and unions can use labor lawyers as mediators and consultants, or to help them file cases and represent them in court. If, for example, you felt that your working conditions did not meet labor standards, or that your contract had been illegally terminated, or that you suffered some form of harassment or abuse in the workplace, then you may want to retain the services of a lawyer. labor. to receive some kind of compensation.
The main characteristic of labor law in most territories is that the rights of both parties and their obligations will be detailed in the employment contract. From this moment, both employers and employees will seek to fulfill their obligations in the contract and any breach could be challenged in court.
However, there are legislations and laws regarding what is written in the contract and there are certain things that cannot be agreed according to common law. For example, many states require employment to be ‘at will’, which means they will be able to terminate your contract by resigning at their discretion.
Therefore, if you feel ‘stuck’ at work, your employers may not legally have the right to keep you at your job and you may be free to leave. In such a situation, it would be wise to use an employment lawyer to help you out of such a situation.
At the same time, organizations are often required to include what are known as ‘essentialia negotii’ (or ‘essential terms’) in any contract to ensure that the employee knows things like the length of their employment, their salary, their allowance on vacation etc Therefore, an employment lawyer can be helpful not only in fighting your employers or contesting their claims, but also in deciding whether or not to accept the terms of a contract initially.