Introduction

Practical and Legal Challenges in Employment Relationships will be analysed in this blog, including recommendations.

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Recruitment Law:

An international company will face variations in recruitment laws in different countries. The company needs to know details of the respective countries’ recruitment laws. Detailed investigation, fact-checking, and criminal records should be checked for respective employees before appointing them to a job, as per UK employment law. UK employers cannot recruit non-EU migrants directly; the company needs to justify that such is needed for the sake of the company and that such an available workforce is not found in the home country. Other countries also have such recruitment laws for employing foreign nationals in those respective countries, which an international company must follow.

Data Protection Act 2018

Data protection highly influences the human resource departments in any organization worldwide because most companies preserve the potential data of the employees in a digital manner. The data protection act requires employers to strictly make employees’ data private only for the ultimate use of the organization. The company must ensure that employees’ data are not misused and exposed to external parties. Any misuse or sale of personal data to external parties will lead to a breach of the Data Protection Act 2018, and the consequence will lead to legal action (Legislation.gov.uk, 2018). Data protection is a sensitive and technical issue, so it is recommended that companies recruit experts to ensure the proper protection of data. Different countries have different types of laws regarding data protection; an international company should properly investigate the law of data protection laws of the respective countries.

Working Time Regulations 1998

Working Time regulations 1998 outlines work times for employees in the UK. An employer cannot force employees to work more than 48 hours a week. A company can out-out and can request employees to sign a contract to work more than 8 hours a day. However, employers cannot force employees or dismiss employees for not agreeing to overtime conditions. If employees agree to work overtime, they should be paid multiple times the average salary. An employee is entitled to enjoy at least one rest-day in each week and should have 11 hours of rest in a day. Any breach of the above legally bound regulations will lead to punishment for the employer. Such laws vary worldwide. Therefore, an international company should carefully investigate working time regulation laws in respective countries. For example, employees should work a minimum of 9 hours in a day in India and should have at least one holiday a week. Similarly, work-time-related laws are different across countries.

Employee health and wellbeing

Employee health and well-being have become more important than ever in history due to the rise of COVID-19 when most employees are working remotely from home. Many employees are even risking their lives for the company. Employers in the UK are legally obliged to provide a safer place to work a safer system to work. Employees should be properly trained to handle risky work practices, and they should be monitored to avoid any accidents. Employers should also provide employees with protection equipment so that employees can use them while in dangerous work. UK employees are also entitled to avail of insurance coverage provided by the company. Failure to follow any of the above rules will enable the employees to claim unfair dismissal and personal injury.

Equal Pay Law:

The law of Equal Pay allows both men and women to receive the same payment, given that they work at the same level and do the same work. If men and women do not receive the same pay, the company must justify and clear its position that the pay difference is not related to gender. An employee can bring equal pay claims, even 6 months after leaving the job. The employment tribunal is responsible for dealing with such cases. Equal payment laws are different across countries. For example, in many Asian countries such as Pakistan, India, and Vietnam, the stance on equal payment law is not strong. However, an international company must carefully assess the domestic laws in respective foreign countries before they start their operations.

Race discrimination and employment:

Race discrimination happens if someone is unfairly treated and disadvantaged based on ethnic origin, colour, religion, nationality etc. Race discrimination is strictly prohibited in the UK. Discrimination can be of different types: Direct Discrimination, Indirect Discrimination, Associative Discrimination, and Victimization. Direct Discrimination happens when an employer treats someone more favourably because of certain characteristics, such as they have white colour. Secondly, Indirect Discrimination happens when the policies of employment give much favour to a specific group of people. For example, a job advertisement may declare that only employees who have lived in certain locations can apply for the position. This will give much favour to the specific group living in that location. Associative Discrimination happens when someone is discriminated against because he spent much of his spare time with someone with protective features such as colour. Finally, victimization is defined happens when employees are treated with less favour because they have made complaints. Race discrimination can lead to legal actions against employers.

Conflict Management

Conflict can happen in the workplace when there is a difference between expectations among different stakeholders in an organization. For example, employers want to get more jobs for less payment; whilst employees want more payment at fewer jobs. Such disputes lead to conflicts between employers and employees. Conflict can also happen among departments, managers, leaders and employees because of different expectations or different types of disputes. For example, conflict can happen among leaders, all of whom want to establish their ideas in the organization, whilst only one idea can be implemented. Conflict should be handled strictly because it brings negative outcomes and deteriorates the work environment.

Communication, cultural and language barriers:

In a diversified and international workplace, communication, cultural and language barriers are very common because people come from different educational and social classes. Communication problem is triggered by cultural difference and language barriers. For example, an employee from non-EU culture working in the UK will act differently. As a result, such differences in cultural orientations will lead to poor communication skills. Such communication problems are more severe in organizations that highly value diversification. The reason is that such a diversified workforce is likely to have employees from multiple orientations. Poor communication skills resulting from cultural and language barriers lead to poor team performance.

Work-life balance:

In recent times, work-life balance has become a concerning issue. Work-life imbalance happens when employees put more emphasis on and spend most of the time on official work and get little or no time for family and personal relaxation. Work-life imbalance can lead to depression, poor performance, and absenteeism in the workplace.

Recommendations:

Recruitment Law:

Firstly, an employer must form an expert team who should go through the recruitment law of the UK to avoid any non-compliance. Secondly, employers must carefully check the backgrounds and criminal records of the employees to conform to UK employment law. Thirdly, the company must know domestic employment laws in the host country and comply with those.

Data Protection Act 2018:

A company should appoint a data protection officer to know all aspects of the data protection Act. Secondly, the company should audit who is holding the data and for what purpose. Thirdly, check if the data are collected and stored as per the Act. Finally, ensure that data are not illegally transferred to external stakeholders.

Working Time Regulations 1998

HR should ensure that working time regulations are strictly maintained. Employees should not be forced to make contact for overtime. A team should work to monitor that working Time Regulations are in place. The company should evaluate the domestic working time Act in foreign nations and should set the policies accordingly.

Employee Health and Wellbeing:

Firstly, a company should make and publish health and safety policies for employees. Secondly, it should cover employees with an insurance policy. Thirdly, it should arrange the appointment of health representatives. Assess workplace risks to reduce the tendency of accidents.

Equal Pay Law

The company needs to ensure that its payment matches the Equality Act 2010. Should not discriminate with gender discrimination on payment. Should eliminate discrimination against part-time employees. The company should review payment-related laws in respective foreign countries of operations and should comply with domestic laws.

Race Discrimination Law and Employment

The company should critically assess the reasons for discrimination which can happen for many reasons, such as cultural barriers, racism etc. The company should not simplify the situation on the ground of cultural differences only. Rather facts should be investigated in detail.

Conflict Management

To avoid conflicts among stakeholders, a company should outline the expectations of the management from the employees and this should be communicated before appointing respective employees. Secondly, the company should make a proper way of transparent communication among all the stakeholders inside the organization. This will lead to better communication and will reduce conflicts.

Communication, Cultural and Language barriers:

Diversification is not a problem if diversified workforces are managed in a proper manner. Firstly, diversified employees should be given orientation about the culture of the company and how employees interact with each other. Secondly, employees should be provided with proper knowledge of work culture; this will culturally inform them on how to behave with employees. If employees use different languages inside the organization, a common language should be determined for official communication.

Work-Life Balance:

Firstly, the workload should be evenly distributed among employees as per the roles of respective employees. Secondly, employees can be trained and educated so that they can perform the certain jobs efficiently. Thirdly, employers should monitor employees’ performance and activities to ensure work-life balance.

Conclusion:

Practical and legal challenges in the employment relationship	Recommendations
Different recruitment laws across countries	Form expert team, check employee details
Need to protect employee data	Audit who is holding data and why. Protect.
Need to maintain working time Act 1998	Maintain Law. Do not force employees
Maintain employee health and wellbeing	Implement a health safety plan
Ensure equal payment	Ensure equal payment
Race discrimination persists	Assess reasons and eliminate
Conflicts among employees	Transparent communication
Communication barriers	Right employee orientations
Work-life imbalance	Distribute workload evenly

Reference

Legislation.gov.uk, (2018). Data Protection Act 2018. Retrieved from:  https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2018/12/contents/enacted [Assessed on: 18 eptember, 2022]