HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

BENEFITS OF LEGISLATION TO WORKER’S WELFARE

Workers should have safe, healthy and fair working conditions. The governments of most countries have enacted legislation to govern employer/employee relations.
Legislations has evolved to cover the following
areas:

 Trade union disputes

 Working conditions
 Wrongful dismissal
 Equality
Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)

 Designed to ensure that workplaces are as safe as

possible.
 Focuses on setting standards and conducting
inspections to ensure that employers are providing
a safe and healthy work place.
OSHA standards make it the responsibility of
employers to :

 Become familiar and comply with the standards

that apply to their activities
 Establish policies and practices to protect workers
on the job
 Eliminate hazardous conditions to the extent
possible
 Ensure that employees have and use personal
protective equipment when required.
International Labour Organization Conventions
(ILO)

 Established by the United Nations in 1919.

 Sets international labour standards that consist of conventions
and recommendations.
 A convention is a legally binding international agreement. A
country that ratifies or signs in an agreement to a convention,
is under obligation to fulfill it.
 A recommendation is a guideline on how a convention may
be implemented.
 The purpose of these rights is to provide a working
environment that caters to the basic dignitaries and rights of
employees.
Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining
Convention 1949 (no.98)

 Protects workers from discrimination on the basis of

union involvement and contains measures to promote
collective bargaining.
 Collective bargaining occurs where a trade union is
recognized by the employer in a workplace as having
the right to negotiate about terms and conditions of
employers.
 Where a trade union is granted statutory recognition,
it has a legal right to bargain with the employer about
pay, hours and holidays.
How collective Bargaining works
 For collective bargaining to work, a trade union
and an employer will need to agree on how the
process will operate. For example:
 Who will represent the workers, or a particular
group of workers;
 Which workers are included in the bargaining unit;
 When meetings will be convened;
 How failures to come to an agreement will be
resolved.
Abolition of Forced Labour Convention 1957
(no.105)

 This convention provides that no employee should

be forced into doing work:
 As a means of political coercion or as punishment
for holding or expressing political views
 As a method of mobilising and using the employer
for purposes of economic development
Abolition of Forced Labour Cont’d
 As a means of discipline
 As a punishment for having participated in strikes
 As a means of racial, social, national or religious
discrimination
HIV/AIDS in the workplace
 Employers must be careful not to discriminate
against workers with HIV or AIDS.
 It is the responsibility of the HR department to
educate workers about the existence of HIV/AIDS
and how to protect themselves against it
 Personnel should be provided with affordable
health care services and necessary counseling for
patients and family members.
The Factories Act
 The aim is to ensure that anyone who works in a
place where goods are manufactured, produced or
adapted in any way will be protected.
 This is important because factories are potentially
dangerous places with hazardous machinery and
substances.
Basic requirements under the Factories Act

 Clean and hygienic workplace

 Safe, regularly maintained equipment
 Provision of a first aid box
 Adequate lighting and ventilation
 Fire safety precautions and adequate unlocked exit
doors
 Provision of clean drinking water, washing facilities
and separate sanitary conveniences for men and
women.
Workmen’s Compensation Act
 Enables workers who are injured or incapacitated at
work, or who suffer an occupational disease, to
claim financial compensation.
 In case of death, this is paid to their next of kin.
 To protect themselves against large claims, all
employers must take out insurance and they must
abide by their legal obligations.
Aspects of workers’ benefits
 Health
 Safety
 Welfare
 Socio-economic
Health Aspect
 To ensure that working conditions do not cause the
deterioration of employees’ health, the following
are required:
 Clean workplace, satisfactory ventilation, adequate
and appropriate lighting, sufficient and suitable
toilet facilities, enough workspace for each person