Employment Law II
Issues at Workplace
Employment Law
• How much do you remember?
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history
relations
employment rights
trade unions
industrial action
…
Do you know the basics of employment law?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn6MK_blDck
Watch the video and answer the following questions:
1. What is retaliation in connection with employment law?
2. What are the alternatives to docking an employee’s
pay?
3. In which aspects does ADEA protect employees or
applicants over 40?
4. How are people aged 16 or 17 limited when it comes to
a job?
5. What does “FMLA leave” stand for and what are the
examples?
Do you know the basics of employment law?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
It is illegal to punish workers who voice complaints, or
use job-protected FMLA leave.
Instead of docking employee’s pay you should
discipline them, e.g. suspension, or termination
ADEA = Age Discrimination in Employment Act; ADEA
makes it illegal to treat an employee or applicant over
40 less favourably because of their age, including
hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, training, benefits
They are not limited by hours, but can work only in
certain non-hazardous jobs
FMLA Leave = Family and Medical Leave Act;
pregnancy, serious health condition, parent / child
serious health condition; up to 12 weeks of jobprotected leave a year
Reading – label the paragraphs
1 A consequences of working overtime
2 C health and safety issues
3 D harassment and bullying
4 F work-life balance
5 G whistleblowing
Whistle-blowing
1 wrongdoing
2 litigation
3 relations
4 grievance(s)
5 personally
6 case
7 obligations
8 legislation
9 disclosure
10 unfairly
Dismissal
• lawyer X client
• lawyers – think about situations in ex.4/p.8
and decide if the dismissal is fair/unfair
- prepare for interviewing a client
• clients – prepare your role (make up
details)
Interviewing
• Client
– don’t say everything at once
– ask for explanations
– let “Lawyer” play his/her role
• Lawyer
– start the interview, ask questions, listen
actively, make sure the client is following you
• Is the dismissal fair?
• Further steps?
Dismissal
Unfair dismissal
Fair dismissal
1 pregnancy: including all reasons
relating to maternity
2 family reasons: including parental
leave, paternity leave (birth and
adoption), adoption leave or time
off for dependants
7 trade union membership grounds
and union recognition
8 dismissing part-time and fixedterm employees
3 a reason related to an
employee's conduct
4 a reason related to an
employee's capability or
qualifications for the job
5 because of a redundancy
6 because a statutory duty or
restriction prohibited the
continuation of employment
Grievances
complaint
Put simply, a grievance is a (1) ___________.
If you are
having a problem at work (for example, you are unhappy
with something you have been asked to do as part of your
job, or you are concerned about the terms of your contract
employment
of (2) ___________
that have been changed, or if you feel
you are being bullied by a colleague or a (3)
manager
___________),
then you can raise a “grievance”.
Raising a grievance is putting your problem to your
employer informally at first (by perhaps having a private
fails
word) or if that (4) ___________,
more formally, perhaps in
investigate
writing which will allow them to (5) ___________
and
hopefully resolve your grievance.
Disciplinary Action
If your employer is concerned or unhappy about your work,
they may look to take disciplinary action against you.
Examples of possible concerns include: the standard of
behavio(u)r
your work, your (6) ___________
at work and your level of
absence
(7) ___________
from work.
obliged
Your employer is not (8) ___________
to discuss matters
with you informally. Instead, they may decide to take
disciplinary action formally, especially if the matter is
serious.
If your employer decides to take disciplinary action, they
alleged
should set out in a letter the (9) ___________
misconduct
performance
or poor (10) ___________
and the possible consequences
you may face.
Constructive Dismissal
1 acted
2 breaches
3 fired
4 forced
5 required
6 bullies
7 prove
8 leaving
9 submitted
10 raise
SPEAKING - EXAM PRACTICE
Group work (examiner + students)
• give definitions
• explain the term in more details e.g. by
giving examples, (dis)advantages, opinions
(examiner asks questions)
unemployment benefit, sickness payment,
advance notice, redundancy, trade unions,
strike, picket line, picketer, collective
bargaining, justifiable discharge, wrongful
discharge/unfair dismissal, disciplinary
action, constructive dismissal,
whistleblowing, employment tribunal, ...
Speaking assessment
Criteria
Components
Task completion
Correspondence with the question/term
Advantages and disadvantages/Expressing opinions
Relevance/repetition
Independence
Vocabulary
Range and accuracy
Collocations
Grammar
Range and accuracy
Cohesion (linking)
Pronunciation
Intonation
Pronunciation
Intonation
Employer … employer dismissing an employee
Employee … ways of leaving a job
Money … phrase(s) related to money
Holiday/Illness … phrase(s) related to holiday/illness
No job … phrase(s) related to having no job
To be out of work
To be off work
To be made redundant To lay sb off
To resign
To be on the dole
To receive the unemployment benefit
To sack / fire sb
To hand in a notice
To quit
To make sb redundant
Vocabulary
to make sb
redundant
Which words are informal?
to sack, to quit, to be on the dole, to hand in
Can you add more words into the categories?
to dismiss sb, to discharge sb, to submit a notice