Reference no: EM132201323
Laws that Drive Policies, Procedures, and Practices
There are many laws that effect how Human Resources deal with employees. Three laws that I would like to concentrate on are the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938, the Labor Relations Act of 1935 (the Wagner Act) and the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.
The FLSA sets policies for minimum wage, overtime pay and minimum age limits on who can work and what the maximum hours for them could be. Human Resources sets salaries based on market demands and minimum wages. As of 2009, the minimum wage is $7.25 (Department of Labor, n.d.). Human Resources decides which employees are salaried and which are hourly based upon the exemptions to overtime in the FLSA. Salaried employees can include executives, professionals, administrative and outside sales people (Cascio, 2015). Everyone else must be hourly.
The Wagner Act sets up the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to serve as an arbitrator between unions and management. Human Resources of both union and non-union companies see the value of binding arbitration in settling labor (employer/employee) disputes. Setting up an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is an example of using arbitration to resolve disputes (Cascio, 2015).HR departments that use ADR have their cases settled quicker and are less costly than going to litigation. Many disputes revolve around matters of discipline. In order to avoid these types of disputes, progressive discipline as an HR policy should be set up. This gives the employee the opportunity to correct his behavior prior to being dismissed and provides documentation that an employee was let go for just cause.
The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Human Resources set up safety procedures and policies using OSHA guidelines as the minimum standard. Companies may exceed OSHA guidelines but they cannot lessen them. OSHA provides free consultation to businesses to help them detect and correct any safety and health violations. When using OSHA’s consultation service, companies will not receive any penalties, but work with OSHA to correct problems (Cascio, 2015).