Employment law. Summary

Employment law protects people when they work and are paid by employers. The history of employment law began with the industrialization of Western countries in the 19^th century. When workers began to organize themselves more systematically governments began to think about legislation and toward the end of the century, laws were passed. In the 20^th century legislation already guaranteed a minimum wage for all workers; prevented employees from being dismissed without reason, period of advance notice, or compensation; and required employers to give their employees a written statement of the main term of their employment contract. The 1978 Employment Protection Act requires that employees be given a written summary of their conditions of work because it gives workers the right to compensation if they are dismissed unfairly or made redundant; also gives women the right to time off. Unfortunately, not only people who work part-time have little protection but also men over 65 and women over 60 are not entitled to compensation for redundancy. The 1970 Equal Pay Act, the 1976 Race Relations Act, and the 1975 and 1986 Sex Discrimination Acts attempts to ensure equality of opportunity whatever race or sex and people complaining of discrimination have the right to take their case to an industrial tribunal. European court law sometimes gives better protection to employees than English law but there are some discussions witch divide EC such as a standard minimum wage or Sunday trading. In Britain stores can sell whiskey but not coffee; magazines but not books; light bulbs for cars but not for houses on Sundays in order to ensure that shop workers get at least one day’s holiday a week, for religious reasons as well. The right to strike was one of the first employment rights to be recognized by law and since the 1984 Trade Union Act, all strikes in Britain must be supported by a majority vote of the workers in a secret ballot. There are fewer employment laws in Japan than in many Western countries because they have to work very long hours and often do not ask for overtime payment; it is unusual for an employee to take legal action again his employer; very few women enjoy equal employment opportunities; many jobs remain closed to workers of non-Japanese origin. On the other hand, Japanese workers enjoy more security than many employees in western countries because once hired, they are unlikely to be dismissed and insurance benefits or recreational facilities are usually made available to them by their companies. One legal development in Japan is law suits against the employers of workers who had died of not a specific accident in the workplace or industrial-related disease, but general stress brought about by overwork.