Human Resources Management (HRM) entails administering employees in the working environment. It involves all human capital related concerns such as recruitment, termination, promotions, performance management, labor relations, wages, training, and welfare. Various requirements in the human resources process such as legal, safety and regulatory requirements shall be examined. Also, of importance are the United State’s employee requirements.
Legal Requirements
It is important for HRM to abide by the set legislation relevant to their jurisdiction. These statutes comprise Federal laws and local regulations relating to human resource. Federal laws in the United States deals with general employees’ recruitment and termination. These laws also look at the fair treatment of employees and applicants to ensure that they are not discriminated. These laws benefit American citizen through just and fair engagement processes. Through the Department of Labor, they can enact laws about workers such as standards of remuneration and operating hours. It also governs the working conditions, retirement, and safety of the workforces. The employee’s welfare such as their medical leave, notice to termination, family, compensation, and wages is accommodated under the state law. It further includes their rights under state common law although different local governments have their employment-related laws. The local government law tends to cover more than the state and federal laws.
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Individuals above the age of forty and above are protected in the Employment Act against discrimination. These individuals are not to be victims of firing, unfair job assignment and harassment due to their age (Cascio, 2015) . When developing Employment policies, they can be termed unlawful if they affect negatively on employees or applicants of 40 years and above. However, individuals below 40 years are not considered by this Act.
Safety Requirements
The HRM has to comply with the set requirements for the safety of employees in an organization or company. The Occupation Safety and Health (OSH) Act, a federal law in the United States, administers the regulation of workplace safety and security. This Act is anchored under the Department of Labor and, it makes and enforces the policy. OSH Act is responsible for setting standards, doing workplace inspections and proposing penalties for violations. HRM ought to put into consideration the wellbeing of employees in the workstation. They need to be protected from risks that may cause harm to their colleagues or themselves. Regarding the existing regulations, they require to be trained on procedures for crime avoidance, safety, and security. These training have to be on par with current trends and updated regularly. The human resource is the intermediary between the employee and the authorities hence should make sure that their concerns are heard and addressed.
To achieve employee safety at the place of work, steady inspections should be carried out frequently and rectifying unsafe practices should be a norm. The existing policies focus on preventing accidents but have measures of investigating when they occur thus preventing future misfortunes. This has seen states like Florida establishing statutes that limit the opening and closing hours of convenience businesses premises in the prevention of crime (Barish, 2001) . The Florida statute further looks at training of workers and the workplace characteristic on the prevention of theft and injury. About these security measures such as providing the worker with safety gears during work, operations is a priority.
Regulatory Requirements
The labor workforce is a contributor to a countries development and should be safeguarded to maximize output. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) stipulates that employees have to be protected from racial, religious, sex and ethnicity discrimination. This applies to employers with a minimum of 15 workers. The commission additionally administers the Equal Pay Act that disallows wage discrimination based on sex. People from both genders should be reimbursed equally for same tasks. Through the Fair Labor Standards Act, workers can get a minimum wage for their service. This applies to all employees in the United States. This law further controls the number of working hours for children less than 16 years on non-agricultural positions. Young people under 18 years are also forbidden from getting employed on high-risk jobs by businesses.
Government regulations also consider people with disabilities under the Disabilities Act. This Act is against discrimination of individuals with disabilities by local government, state governments, labor unions, and employment agencies apart from the EEOC that enforces private employment (Lee, 1996) . This discrimination on disables people can be through unfair job application processes, training, rewards and conditions of employment for individuals with disabilities. The workplace has to be made accommodative for disabled people as long as it doesn’t strain the organizations’ resources.
Conclusion
Litigation has replaced common sense and compassion in the workplace because going against the set rules may force once to seek legal action. A disabled person may take their employer to court if they do not provide an accommodative working environment. This leads to extra expenses resulting in court processes and compensation on settlements. The reason for having these regulations in place was to protect the employee and ensure fairness for all. These requirements have to be strongly observed for a good working relationship between the employer and employees.
References
Barish, R. C. (2001). Legislation and regulations addressing workplace violence in the United States and British Columbia. American Journal of Preventive Medicine , 20 (2), 149-154.
Cascio, W. F. (2015). Managing human resources . McGraw-Hill.
Lee, B. A. (1996). Legal requirements and employer responses to accommodating employees with disabilities. Human Resource Management Review , 6 (4), 231-251.
