Employment Relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Employment Relations - Essay Example This paper is an assessment of a case study which involves several issues with regard to potential health and safety problems of employers. It also involves issues of wrongful information and retirement of an employee due to injury. The assessment will be done with regard to the following two areas namely, the relevant statutes and acts which can be used here and the options available to the injured or affected parties. This will be in the form of an advice which can be accepted or rejected by those concerned. This writer had been appointed as an office assistant in a firm engaged in the business of life insurers in the UK called Ricky Gervais & Co Ltd. Many factors that have potential negative effects for employees within the office premises are noticed after reporting for work. The secretaries are not provided with proper chairs that have correct supports. They are made to work for long hours sitting in such chairs and are provided with outdated computer screens. A isolated incident of employee injury due to the prank of another employee also occurred as a result of which the injured party had to leave his current job and work for a lower pay. The company had done nothing with regard to this injured employee. The writer has also found that employee assessment by previous employees had been vindictive and untrue. It contained many false allegations with regard to performance, competence, and dependability. Relevant statutes: There are many recourses of law in the UK which could possibly used by the affected employees. They include the Employment Act of 2008, Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, Employment Rights Act 1996, Employment Relations Act 1999, Employer's Liability (Defective Equipment) Act 1969 and Disability Discrimination Act 1995. They can also take recourse of the employment tribunals in the UK if they so choose as per the provisions of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996. The Employment Act is more of a corrective act is primarily for "repealing and amending existing legislation in the field of employment and trade union law." (Explanatory notes to employment act 2008 2008). Hence it can be used only if it amends or repeals any of the provisions in the other Acts mentioned above. The Employment Relations Act is with regard to trade union relations and hence not very valid here. There is no mention of trade union involvement within the company and hence it can be assumed that Ricky Gervais & Co Ltd is not unionized or even it is so, the strength and bargaining power is low. Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 is directly related with the health and safety of the employees in the workplace and deals with whatever safety measures taken or not taken by the employer. The Act specifically states that employers are duty bound to see that the workplace is a safe one and should take steps that are as far as practical to ensure that the health and safety of the employers are protected. The Employment Rights Act 1996 related to the rights of employees in several areas of work and this includes safety issues as well. The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 also is useful for the injured employee, Geoff. The act states that alternated duties and jobs are to be provided in case employees are unable to perform their

Lessons from the Cold War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Lessons from the Cold War - Essay Example The United States is widely considered to be the â€Å"winner† of the Cold War for several reasons. Firstly, there is simple geography: if you look at a map, the United States exists now exactly as it did during the years of the Cold War (in fact, it actually grew somewhat during the conflict, adding Hawaii and Alaska as states as opposed to protectorates or territories), whereas the Soviet Union dissolved as a political entity, becoming Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, the Baltic States, Belarus, Ukraine, and several other smaller states between the Black and Caspian Seas (Brooks 450). More importantly, however, was the fact that the political ideology of Russia shifted – the one-party, the communist government ended, the economy was capitalized, state-run corporations became privately owned and so on. So, the state of the Soviet Union and the form of government and economy that it represented both ended, while the United States remained the lone Superpowe r. There are various explanations of how the Cold War was â€Å"won† or â€Å"lost† without recourse to a nuclear war. One of the major theories is that the United State’s more efficient and productive economy simply outpace the Soviet one, leading the Soviet government to either fall behind militarily or socially – both of which would have led to the downfall (Brooks 449). The classic explanation can be summarized as ‘the United States could make tanks and cars, the Soviet Union, one or the other.’ Any explanation that fails to take into account Soviet leadership, however, is somewhat naà ¯ve. The fact is that Gorbachev, the leader of the Soviet Union, genuinely sought openness and freedom for his people, and allowed them the freedom to choose what type of economy they wanted, which allowed the Soviet Union to fall without violent backlashes towards either the United States or its own populace (Brooks 454).