Criminal Laws: Violations that Might take Place at Work
Introduction
Criminal is basically a field of law that deals with crime. Criminal law ensures that those who violate the law are punished according to the law. This field of law is very important in ensuring that there is sanity. Criminal law ensures that the conduct of a person is checked and if need be the person committing a crime is punished.
This paper will focus on the workplace and how criminal violations are handled. The following research will focus on the criminal policies applied in the workplace where individuals are employed to execute various duties. A frontline management level is a manager or supervisor responsible for company functions relating to production and supervision. The supervisor will work under the immediate manager and has the responsibility to ensure that all levels of production perform as expected and other ethical practices at the workplace. The frontline manager is also to ensure that the laws of the workplace are followed. The research looks at various scenarios the frontline manager has to deal with. Employees of a company should always have a plan schedule in advance (Sims et al, 2001).
The frontline manager is responsible for allocating duties and making any adjustment depending on the work at hand, he ensures smooth running of the industry functions. Each employee should be assigned duties to perform and should not be idle when there is more work to be done. The frontline supervisor ensures that employees are allocated reasonable and equal work to prevent overburdening some employees (bluff, Gunningham & Johnstone, 2008). The frontline manager is also responsible for solving employee grievances and other work related issues. He also makes use of responsible dispute resolution mechanism when there are serious disputes among the employees (Estreicher, 2004).
Frontline Supervisor Qualifications and Responsibilities
Frontline supervisors are very important to an industry in so many ways. The one single major employee motivator is the frontline manager. The manager interacts with the employees on a day-to-day basis and has the advantage of interacting with them on a day-to-day basis. The supervisor therefore, encourages employees to be better and perform better at work (Sims et al, 2001). The supervisor has the ability to detect and minimize criminal law violations at work.
Every organization follows a well-laid structure governed by rules and regulations. The front line manager ensures that employees adhere to the company rules and regulations in their day-to-day activities. Regulations ensure that the working environment is not chaotic but rather well organized.
Responsibilities are apportioned to every employee by the supervisor. The supervisor must be meticulous in his responsibilities and therefore ensure that each employee delivers the best quality service to the company. He can also re allocate duties where employees are absent from work (bluff, Gunningham & Johnstone, 2008). He is responsible for staff appraisal and therefore makes re commendations for promotion and other work related recommendations required to improve the services and goods rendered by the company.
Activities at the industry or workplace, requires rigorous and careful planning (Estreicher, 2004). In these plans, whereas the company strives for maximum productivity, adherence on quality, employee wellness, emergency preparedness, and quality of production and services cannot be ignored. Emergency response and safety is also a priority area.
Company equipment and other hardware must always be inspected before any daily work is resumed. The frontline manager must ensure that such inspection is done to prevent avoidable hazards in the workplace. This therefore means that there must be specialists to maintain the equipments and ensure that they are in a serviceable state. Records on the equipments must be updated frequently to prevent injuries. He also must make sure that all employees have their safety gears on at all times. The supervisor sets goals for every team leader and ensures that a set target is reached (Wiley, 2011).
For one to qualify as a frontline supervisor, certain qualities must be demonstrated. A frontline supervisor is likely to be promoted to a manager simply because he knows the day-to-day activities of a company. Some of the professional attributes that must be demonstrated include flexibility, high moral and psychological probity, academically qualified, wise and sound judgment, low temperament, ability to solve industrial disputes amicably and good communication skills. The candidate must also have the ability to treat workers fairly and this therefore requires good supervisory and record keeping skills (Estreicher, 2004). Record keeping is very important to the overall assessment of employee outputs. The most important is possession of visible leadership qualities. This means the person should be likeable and able to apply sound managerial skills (Fawzy, 2002).
National Frontline Supervisor Requirements
In the United States, there are legal competencies and requirements that a frontline supervisor must always demonstrate. In trying to achieve this National Frontline Supervisor Competencies (NFSC), encompass setoff standard skills (Wiley, 2011).
. Certain benchmarks are set on how frontline supervisors should render their functions in the most responsible and humane way without discrimination to gender, persons with disability, or any other form of discrimination. A competent supervisor translates to effective workforce.
There was however need to offer regulation and make responsibilities of all frontline supervisors meet a certain standard. These requirements will therefore mean there are set requirements of executing the functions of the office. When standards are set, it means that output can be measured using certain parameters for purposes of fairness (Wiley, 2011).
. There is also the need to develop a curriculum suited for frontline managers. These standards will ensure that rights of frontline supervisors are not violated. The National Frontline SUPRVISOR Competencies (NFSC) has set standards that have to be adhered to by all organizations so that there is standardization in the requirement of the office.
Core Functions of a Frontline Manager
There are five known levels of management that frontline supervisor must always adhere to. These functions are considered basic. A frontline supervisor must always plan on both the near future and long-term achievable goals. This will help in setting responsibilities and targets for each employee. An organization cannot function at all without planning
A supervisor must also organize functions in for the employees. Each employee must know where he or she ought to be and on what machine at any one time (Fawzy, 2002). This eliminates chaos and conflicts among the staff. Employees should also be placed at their area of specialty for maximum output.
Coordination is also a very important element. Coordination is done with company goals in mind. Coordination also eliminates chaos in the workplace.
A frontline officer must also be commanding and authoritative. He is responsible for directing employees and employees must do as he says. Poor command creates room for rebellion and chaos (bluff, Gunningham & Johnstone, 2008). The Ability to command also means the supervisor can direct employees to perform certain functions effectively and when needed to.
Lastly, the supervisor has to be able to control functions and adjust them to fit to a particular situation on a need basis. Whereas there are set plans of work, the ability to control ensures that there is quick response to an emerging situation (Wiley, 2011).
Frontline supervisors are tasked with not only ensuring that there is quantity output, they must ensure that they adhere to quality. They also must encourage and motivate employees to enjoy the work environment. Frequent advice to employees will act as a motivating factor for enhanced output.
Assault and Battery
Assault and battery are two distinct words used together most times despite the fact that each means something totally different. Battery may occur when a person lays hands on another individual without their consent whereas assault occurs when the body is used to touch another without their consent. That means if a person throws a jab and misses; it legally qualifies as an assault. When one is hit by the hand, it is battery.
The work place is very ripe for assault and many cases are reported at the industrial workplace. The front line supervisor is the immediate person interacting with the employees and should be able to take action when such violations occur. Most times the company guards or employees assault their colleagues at work. The frontline supervisor should immediately report such cases and cause such individuals to be ejected or further disciplinary action to be taken on them.
The employer is equally culpable if any kind of discrimination occurs to an employee. A frontline supervisor should immediately be informed when such harassment occurs; the employer could be sued in damages. The frontline supervisor should protect employees at all times from workplace criminal violations.
Violations
The supervisor should also be careful not to perpetrate violations at the workplace. At times, it may not be easy to tell if a violation has occurred especially if it was not intentional. A violation is not intentional if the supervisor did not know about it. For example discriminating upon an employee with disability is willful considering it that they fall under a protected category and protected by the ADA Act. It is also a crime to contemplate retaliation for a violation. It will be absurd to assign aged workers to a much harder station to serve as a punishment. It will also be a violation to assign a person with disability roles that involve scaling walls. A violation can also involve assigning excessive work to an employee to punish them. Work responsibilities should be predictable for an employee to plan in advance. Giving irregular commands to an employee is considered a violation in law (Walsh, 2009
Unfair Treatment at Workplace
Harassment and discrimination of employees at the work place is very common occurrence. There are several workplace laws that prohibit discrimination and unfair treatment of workers. The front line supervisor should always be alive to these sensitive issues. Specific areas of discrimination are age, sex, color, disability, sex. Harassment involves working under pressure of coercion to deliver far and beyond what an employee ought to, unfair promotions based of nepotism or favoritism, working in a very unfriendly condition. Harassment also borders on insult. The frontline supervisors should at all times dissociate themselves with these two vices at all costs (England, 2012).
Laws on Overtime Hours
Workforce health and safety regulations need to be observed keenly in any working environment. Supervisors are tasked with ensuring all health hazards are kept in check at all times. There is need for very strict regulating mechanisms to satisfy Occupational Health and Safety laws. This legislation imposes specific duties on a workplace environment. There are so many incidences or accidents that are may occur a workplace (Wiley, 2011). The law imposes strict penalties to those who flout these laws. It bestows upon every supervised to acquaint themselves with the letter and spirit of the laws on safety.
Supervisors should also take it upon themselves to not only enforce these laws but also inform its workforce. It is also wise to hold civic forums on these laws with the employees. Posters are also an efficient way of informing the workforce on what the law requires of them. The organization should demonstrate willingness to be bound by the OHS legislation at all times (bluff, Gunningham & Johnstone, 2008).
The law and Job Description
A company is motivated by profits and in pursuit of this; mechanisms are put in place to make sure that it produces and distributes the products. It therefore follows that and employee must equally be motivated by pay and should therefore strive to produce these goods to be able to earn pay. However, the employer will not dictate to an employee how to carry out his functions. In response to the discrimination rampant in the Americans with disabilities, the ADA Act was enacted to protect against discrimination on such persons.
This law requires that the workplaces should at all times be friendly to persons with disabilities. They should be able to work on the same machines and operate within the time prescribed by the company. This law mentions essential jobs and should therefore be of legitimate expectations to the person with disability. Whereas the task of setting job duties lies with the employer, it is important to take into consideration the overall expected output and not how it is done. ADA also protects persons with disability where they are made to perform noncore duties to their detriment (Wiley, 2011). A supervisor must at all times ensure that there is fairness to all employees and with particular interests to persons with disability.
Persons covered under ADA cannot be compelled to execute an undertaking that is not within his ambit. There has to be a clear work plan and job description to guide a person protected by the law from performing non-essential duties. The supervisor has the responsibility of allocation duties that are in line with the company achievable goals. A development of employee job description must be professional and fair taking into consideration individual capabilities. It must also be aligned with the company objectives and should not take into consideration the age of an employee. The goals of an organization must also be goals that are achievable, employees should not be made to strain to perform functions that would ordinarily be performed by a larger number of employees (Blanck & Braddock, 1998).
Job evaluation must also be fair or be seen to be fair. Evaluation has to be in line with the company objectives and the duties performed to satisfaction by the employees. Where an evaluation is extended beyond the objectives of the company, then that is an illegality and is not fair to the employees. The laws are there to protect the employee from exploitation by the employer it follows therefore that the employers display some degree of resistance because it limits the powers of the employer to an employee. Industrial laws are made to be similar in the whole country so that there is a high level of fairness in employment and working conditions. The laws also ensure that employers are restricted to only assigning employees what is considered essential to the performance of duties in the industry.
The laws also increase levels of accountability and reduce significantly discrimination based on age, gender, disability, sex, original nationality, religious inclinations, and all other forms of discrimination.
Whereas there is a misconception among managers on who is fully responsible for enforcement of the laws, the supervisor being the first contact person in management and executing company policies. Other department s in a company are equally responsible and incase of violations, blame will be apportioned to each responsible department. The supervisor must ensure that the employee under him enjoys the protections of the law. He also has to ensure the workplace does not discriminate upon any employee on gender, disability, sex, or color. Finally, the supervisor being the planner of duties must alter and accommodate such special needs employees especially those under ADA and ensures that time and other work requirements favor their disability(Wiley, 2011).. Inline supervisors are solely responsible for their own individual violations committed at the workplace. The supervisor must implement company policies in a legal manner and if need be, decline to implement discriminatory regulations or orders from other senior departments.
Age has been used to discriminate on employment and this let to the enactment in 1967 of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. This Act of law was meant to discourage the use of age as a factor or requirement in employment. Not adhering to this acts requirement is considered so grave a violation and might be seen as a blatant violation of individual Civil rights. This law is applicable to all persons over 40 years old. This law had the intention to create a fair and level field for employment. It therefore begs the question, what are the requirements to qualify for employment. One only qualifies based on academic and job performance
There is need to eliminate all discriminatory practices related to job qualifications so as to create a level field for fair and just employment for all citizens..
Laws on Hiring and Promotions
The law is very clear on protection of potential employees during the hiring process and at the times of promotion. The law stipulates what falls under the protected category. A person’s disability should not be raised during an interview or promotion. Equally, the age and gender should not be an impediment to a promotion. There are also requirements set for job application advertisements. The law eliminates all forms of discrimination before employment and during employment. Fairness ensures that there is a level field for employees to ascend the ladder. The supervisors must strive to give a fair recommendation of an employee without any form of discrimination but rather based on merit (Mizrahi & Davis, 2008).
Workforce Cut down
Companies at times are forced to reduce its employees to meet their needs however; it must be done in a structured manner respecting the rights of employees. When a company or organization wants to scale down on employee numbers, it should not be done to eliminate people with disabilities or discriminate on age. The job descriptions and company requirements at the time should be considered. Failure to adhere to this is a violation (Garner, 2008).
A supervisor should always be alive to the legal requirements as provided by the law. An employee rights should be taken into consideration at all times.
Ethical Behavior in the Workplace
Workplace ethical behavior concerns behavior among workers that strengthens the organization’s capacity to achieve its objectives conveniently. Such behavior involves responsible behavior among employees, effective teamwork, respect and cooperation among employees, obedience to the management and regulations, and effective application of personal skills for excellent performance. Workplace ethics further concerns positive interpersonal relations, high job motivation, competent decision-making, and protection of the organization’s interests.
Conclusion
Frontline supervisors are very important to the day-to-day running of an industry. The law is very clear on how front desk supervisors are supposed to conduct themselves when they execute their mandate. It is also important to have supervisors that are qualified with relevant managerial skills. The persons should have inherent attributes and determined to carry out their functions in a professional manner.
There is need for supervisors to acquaint themselves with all laws that touch on the employees and the workplace and how to administer company policies in a manner that upholds the law. The employees in a company should be made to inculcate a positive attitude and be able to work as a team to propel an industry to greater heights. Discrimination at the work place should be prevented at all costs and the best way to do this is by providing an avenue for employees to air their grievances in confidence without fear of victimization.
The working environment should also be made attractive by investing in modern machines and giving the employees better remuneration.
The disabled should also be provided with special apparatus to make their work easier and therefore tapping on their skills. Industries that are keen on embracing the global dynamics and adopting laws, rules and regulations are likely to thrive well are realize the core intentions of the industry. Supervisors also have to be humane, kind and a team player to be able to motivate other employees render better services to the company at all times. Companies should also inform employees of their rights at all times.
References
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