Employment Laws and Regulations Every Professional Should Know

Sep 9, 2024

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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Concerned about the HR programs at your organization? The benefits of having a trusted partner guide you and your team to excellence are invaluable. Contact us today. You – and your employees – will be glad you did.

Rise with us by implementing our high-performance remote human-resource programs to help find great people! E-mail us here.

Mark A. Griffin is president and founder of IHN HR. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Mark A. Griffin | Blog, Christian Higher Ed HR, Human Resources, Kingdom Company Building

Using a Third-Party Workplace Complaint Investigator Is Critical to Your Success

Jul 2, 2020

Benefits of Outsourcing Workplace Investigations

No organization, no matter how well run, is immune to employee workplace complaints. Whether you employ fewer than 50 employees or manage thousands, some form of complaint will inevitably be filed against your organization or one or more of its members. In our wide experience, which spans for-profit and nonprofit organizations, including colleges, universities, churches and ministries, we have witnessed complaints filed in a variety of areas, including:

• Discrimination (e.g., gender, disability, religion, race, age)
• Harassment (sexual and nonsexual)
• Bullying
• Theft or other ethical impropriety
• Violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act
• FMLA and medical-related leave issues
• Reprisals against whistleblowers

With the potential liability being so high, and the risk of negative publicity, the benefits of using an independent investigator are not to be dismissed: External independent investigators demonstrate and support an organization’s integrity and desire for objectivity, protect the confidentiality of its operations that an internal conflict of interest could otherwise jeopardize, and insulate the employer from claims of retribution toward whistleblowers.

Integrity/objectivity

When an organization outsources an investigation to an independent, external specialist, it demonstrates to its employees that it is intent on doing the right thing: to permit the impartial examination of the events in question, irrespective of the outcome. In contrast, when an investigation is performed internally, such as by a manager employed by the company, it’s understandable that the employee might fear their complaint could cast a shadow over their future at the company, whether consciously or unconsciously, particularly if they have any dealings with that manager. There’s no shortage these days of bad publicity when an organization appears to dismiss or bury a complaint or retaliate against the complainant, whether it’s in public or private companies or within our government.

Avoid conflicts of interest and protect confidentiality

If you’re thinking that you can safely delegate workplace complaints and violations to in-house counsel, we urge you to think again. Should the complainant feel their complaint was not handled impartially or that they’ve been subject to harassment or retribution attempts, you might well find your organization facing a lawsuit. Should it go to trial, the prosecuting attorney will look for any signs of conflict of interest and/or lack of impartiality that suggests the internal investigation was flawed. And you might find your in-house counsel on the stand, testifying to conversations and dealings you assumed would be protected by attorney-client privilege but were forced to waive. An independent investigator, on the other hand, can only testify to what their investigation of the pertinent circumstances revealed.

The experienced investigators used by In His Name HR are independent of your organization, with numerous similar investigations under their belt with findings both for and against employers, further highlighting their impartiality. For example, our investigators refrain from using words like “we” and “us,” making it obvious to both judge and jury that no relationship between them and the organization exists that would tip the investigation in the organization’s favor. Again, an outside investigator does not represent the organization, and their statements are limited only to what they learned in the investigation—nothing else.

Allay employee fears of retribution

in our experience, most human resources managers and other authority figures do not treat employees differently when concerns are aired about the organization, or even about individual managers. Still, it’s understandable that such an employee might have concerns or fears that raising an issue might negatively impact their career path or even result in retribution. For example, a complainant who has been passed over for promotion months after they filed a complaint might see things differently.

We have spoken to employees who participated in internal investigations who said that the internal investigator now “sees me as a problem, or a complainer.” Most internal investigators are trained and prepared for this. However, whether real or perceived, it is an issue. Even if the internal investigator can separate what was said in the complaint and operate objectively going forward, participants may likely never be convinced that the internal investigator can “unhear” what was said and not be influenced by it.

When you use an outside investigator, however, those concerns are allayed. A third-party investigator can conduct a full, independent investigation while the organization and employees carry on the business at hand without employees fearing future effects.

The bottom line

Is this a cause for concern? It should be. We work in difficult times, under increased scrutiny. Complaints are on the rise—sometimes daily. HR departments are overburdened. With the news escalating in the media surrounding harassment, discrimination, and hostile work environments, employee complaints have now reached record levels.

Let us allay your concerns. Reach out to us to discuss having a trusted partner to guide you and your team in the event a complaint arises.

Contact us today. You—and your employees—will be glad you did.

In His Name HR helps organizations build high-performance human resource programs. Visit them at In HIS Name HR or e-mail them here.

Mark A. Griffin is the founder and chief consultant of In His Name HR LLC. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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Mark A. Griffin | Blog, Christian Higher Ed HR, Human Resources