Safety, Health, and Welfare of the Employees
Over the years, Government has taken great care to protect employee's rights to take care of themselves and their families. Two of the greatest pieces of legislation passed to protect employees' rights to themselves and their families are the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). This paper will summarize the application and implication of FMLA and OSHA. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was written into law in February 5, 1993 by President Bill Clinton. FMLA was established to help protect employees who missed work for medical reasons. The law was adopted to provide workers with rights to protect their jobs while taking care of medical
The OSHA governs any employer who employs workers in a business that affects commerce (Alexander & Hartman, 2007, 692). Eligible employers must comply with the Department of Labor's safety and health compliance requirements. The organization responsible for monitoring and enforcement is the OSH administration under the Department of Labor. Seen as OSHA's most costly and invasive requirement, the continual-training requirement requires employers to adopt a program to train employees about proper safety in the workplace (Department of Labor, 2007).
In regards to OSHA, employers' responsibilities are simple, but not necessarily easy to regulate. Employers are expected to, "furnish to each of its employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognize hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm" (Alexander & Hartman, 2007, 694). This clause is known as the "general duty" clause. This is a very broad requirement that places the burden on the employer for providing a safe working environment. Employers are expected to maintain reporting requirements which record the incident date, category of illness if applicable, description of incident, identification of affected employee, extent of illness or injury and if employee was transferred or terminated.
There are certain protections the law provides to employees under FMLA and OSHA. The FMLA gives employees the legal right to file