The Areas Of Employment Law HR Professionals Need To Know & Understand

As a business owner running a company and trying to succeed, many things can make it complicated. Employment law is one area that your company cannot afford to lack knowledge about, as it can have dire consequences for your business. For this reason, companies hire qualified HR professionals to take care of these things for them and ensure things run smoothly. Below are some of the areas of law that it is vital HR professionals know and understand intimately, or it could significantly affect your business and its success.

Laws Covering Wages & Working Hours

Your HR department must know the laws that cover wages and the hours that your employees can work legally. You can find yourself in a lot of hot water if you break these laws, which may find your company being taken to court. It can also influence your company’s reputation and stop the best talent from wanting to work for your business.

Your HR department will need to know and understand the laws governing minimum wages, overtime laws, maximum working hours, and child employment regulations. If this is an aspect of running your business you struggle with, there are many companies offering 24 hour employment law advice that you can consider using for your company.

The Laws Covering Discrimination In The Workplace

Over the last few decades many new laws have come into effect that cover discrimination in the workplace that your company must adhere to. You are not allowed to discriminate against an employee or potential employee in the following ways.

• Age
• Sex
• Religious Beliefs
• Sexuality
• Race

If your company contravenes any of these laws, you can find yourself in trouble, and there will be a good chance of a court case being brought against you for discrimination. Although HR professionals need to do many tasks within a business to help it run smoothly and efficiently, they also need knowledge of the law to ensure they do things correctly.

Immigration Laws: The Right To Work

An excellent HR professional such as Avensure understands the laws covering immigration, including the right to work in the country you operate. Some people enter a country for one reason, which may not mean they are legally allowed to work. When you hire someone who is not entitled to work while in the country you operate in, the buck falls with you, and there can be repercussions for your company. The company needs to ensure that the employee has the right to work legally. Being lapse in this area can incur hefty fines and potentially a lot of bad press, damaging the reputation of your business.

Laws Covering Safety In The Workplace

An excellent HR professional will also need to know the laws governing health and safety in the workplace. It is the employer’s responsibility to ensure their employees receive adequate training to enable them to do their jobs but also do them safely. If someone gets hurt in your company doing a job they have not been trained to do, it can be disastrous for your business and cause many problems. You can get more information about health and safety in the workplace and the government guidelines through a quick search on Google.