Employment Laws and Regulations Every Professional Should Know
HR professionals are supposed to strategically manage staff members in accordance with a list of intricate and constantly evolving legal rights for both employers and employees. It’s a tough task with potentially severe penalties for any failures – real or perceived.
Legal action… financial losses… a damaged reputation.
It literally and figuratively pays to know your HR rules and regulations.
Beyond the Bill Of Rights
The creators of the United States Constitution memorialized citizen rights in a series of 10 amendments, collectively known as The Bill of Rights. This was a revolutionary document, made more impactful still since our founders had the foresight to make the list adaptable for a changing future.
The power to expand, create, and enact legislation was granted to the dual (and sometimes dueling) houses of Congress. And our representatives have definitely acted on that power ever since, impacting citizen rights in so many ways.
All of them put together, for better or worse, make an organization’s human resources agenda a lot more challenging. The topic is multilayered, but here are the biggest pieces of federal law your HR team needs to know about.
1964 Civil Rights Act
The U.S. Declaration of Independence stated that the new nation was being formed on “self-evident” truths “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” and “that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Yet it took until the 1964 Civil Rights Act to legislatively prohibit employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in hiring, promoting, and firing.
As a legal benchmark of modern civil rights, it has since been used as precedent for women’s and LGBTQ+ rights as well.
The Occupational Safety and Health Act
The OSH Act of 1970 created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Under OSHA, businesses are mandated to provide safe working conditions that are devoid of recognized hazards. Its objective is to regulate, inspect, and prevent unhealthy and unsafe working conditions.
This includes guaranteeing that workers are properly trained in their jobs and provided proper personal protective equipment (PPE) to minimize worker exposure to hazardous environments and tasks. As a regulatory agency, OSHA seeks to prevent employment-related illness, disabilities, and death.
The National Labor Relations Act
The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935, also known as the Wagner Act, protects workers’ rights in the private sector. It gives them the right to free association in forming trade unions and to seek collective bargaining for fair wages and better working conditions. This includes protections against unfair labor practices and reprisals against labor organizations and their representatives.
There have been three significant amendments to the NLRA over the decades. In 1947, the Labor Management Relations Act – nicknamed the Tafy-Harley Act – removed some labor union privileges and gave the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) authority over determining unfair union practices.
Next, the 1959 Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act banned unions from expanding strikes to companies not directly involved in a labor dispute. And finally, technical amendments were passed in 1974 to cover healthcare workers in the private sector sphere.
The NLRA is the subject of two current (2024) Supreme Court cases. Since both challenge perceived NLRB overreaches, we could see further changes still.
Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990
The Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) forbids discrimination on the basis of disability.
Expanding on and clarifying the Civil Rights Act, the ADA added persons with disabilities as a recognized and protected class of citizen. It states that reasonable accommodations for equal and non-discriminatory access must be provided – regardless of whether a company is private or public. This applies to educational and transportation capabilities, as well as healthcare, housing, and employment.
Since its enactment, numerous court challenges have risen up to determine what constitutes “reasonable” accommodation. More recently, some of these challenges have asked whether mental disabilities are covered.
Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) of 1967 prohibits discrimination in the workplace against individuals who are at least 40 years old. As with ADA, it expands on the Civil Rights Act – which inherently should cover age discrimination but does not specifically name it.
ADEA mandates advancement and training based on age, as well as hiring and job interview equality. It continues to be amended as younger and older workers alike become affected by changing demographics and technological advancements.
Living Rights
As initially stated, the Constitution was crafted to be a living document addressing living rights.
The Bill of Rights alone could not address every issue concerning citizen rights, local and state government responsibilities, and private sector fairness and balance. So acts of Congress seek to address the needs of a changing citizenry.
Employment laws were developed to give structure, standards, and safeguards for both employers and employees. This is an important task, to be sure, since the very foundation of the U.S. economic system is our labor force.
However, this does mean that HR professionals work hard to stay current with laws at every level of government: municipal, state, and federal alike. Breaking these regulations can have disastrous repercussions, so always strive to stay compliant in how you handle your organization – inside and out.
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Mark A. Griffin is president and founder of IHN HR. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter.