Employers and employees alike can be found in violation of the law at the workplace for a huge variety of things. From wrongful terminations and breaches of contract to workplace harassment, there are a large number of legal rights and terms which we need to be aware of in the 21st century. Dealing with any of these legal issues can be highly tricky for anyone to deal with, even without considering that you will be potentially litigating against a major corporation. When things get overly complicated, you should then seriously consider hiring an employment lawyer with expertise in these circumstances. Here are just a few of the most common scenarios when an employment lawyer can be highly useful.
Wrongful Terminations
One of the most common reasons people need to contact a workplace lawyer is due to (alleged) wrongful dismissals. Broadly, this refers to situations where corporations fire their employees in a way that is in breach of the employment contract between the two parties. In practice, this mainly concerns whether the employer gave the dismissed employee the proper notice stipulated in their contract. This is far from the only reason you may have been terminated, though, and providing you can prove your employer violated the terms of your employment contract, you may have a legitimate case. A specialist lawyer is highly valuable in this respect, because of their specific expertise in the wording and conditions of employment contracts.
There are generally 2 major things an employee must prove when claiming wrongful dismissal. The first, as alluded to earlier, is that your employer broke the terms of your contract in a specific way. The second is that you suffered specific damages as a result of the wrongful termination, the most common being a loss in wages.
Wages and Hours
The stipulations of both employment contracts and legal regulations outline certain conditions relating to the wages and working hours of employees which companies must abide by, or face the threat of legal consequences. In respect to legal considerations, most countries have a set of basic laws relating to things like overtime pay, minimum wage requirements, and necessary work breaks which organisations must adhere to. Meanwhile, contract breaches generally depend on the details of your agreement, often involve disputes pertaining to unpaid wages or employees being forced to work longer hours than stipulated in their contract.
Like any of these issues, proving your employer has violated either laws or contract terms relating to wages and hours can be very difficult, especially if you are doing so alone. This is therefore another scenario where it can be beneficial to seek help from a employment lawyer, since this can somewhat counteract the disparity in resources between you and your employer.
Discrimination
There are several laws which forbid the unfair treatment of employees based on any predetermined characteristics, including race, gender, sexuality, religion, disability, or age. Direct or indirect mistreatment of people based on these characteristics is illegal in the workplace, as well as harassment based on discrimination. An employment lawyer in this respect can help you file a grievance related to discrimination with your lawyer, and also assist you with escalating this grievance, if you consider your employer’s response to be insufficient.
