Thanks to employment law, employees and employers are both protected in different ways in the workplace. Whether you own a business or simply work for one, it’s your responsibility to know and understand your rights.

Employer Rights

What do you need to know before you hire, fire, set leave policy, offer wages and more? Make sure you don’t discriminate based on race, religion or disability. According to ehow, you can choose not to hire someone based on their behavior during an interview, the way they’re dressed, lack of experience or even a gut feeling that they don’t have the right personality for the position. But employers do not have the right to deny employment based on a person’s ethnicity, beliefs or disabilities.

As the employer, you do have the right not to offer paid sick days or paid vacation time. Regardless, be sure you set a leave policy that’s the same for each employee so as to avoid any discrimination charges.

Employers also have the right to fire an employee for a variety of legal reasons, including disruption of the workplace, frequently missing work or arriving late, harassment of other employees, inadequate work and poor work ethics. Just make sure you follow the terms of any contract between you and the employee.

Employee Rights

For any job you have, it’s important to understand your rights as an employee. Although rights differ a bit depending on the size and type of company you work for, there are standard rights that you as an employee have no matter where in the country you work. Most of them fall under one of these categories:

• The right to be free from discrimination and harassment of all types
• The right to a safe workplace free of dangerous conditions, toxic substances, and other potential safety hazards
• The right to be free from retaliation for filing a claim or complaint against an employer (commonly known as “whistleblower” rights)
• The right to fair wages for work performed

To find out more about rights specific to your workplace, check out Nolo’s Employee Rights & Law Center or the Employee Rights center on Chron.com.

Of course, we’re happy to help you understand employment law and how it relates to you as well, whether you’re an employer or an employee!

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