Familiarise Yourself with Your Workplace Rights
Securing a job that you actively enjoy, or that at least provides you with the money to lead an enjoyable quality of life, you will generally do whatever it takes to keep it. This is positive if it means working hard, looking to progress, and developing your professional skill set.
But many employees make the mistake of ignoring injustices in the workplace for the sake of seeming agreeable and avoiding confrontation that could lead to them being suspended or fired. This is understandable.
After all, nobody wants to threaten their own position within a company. But when it comes down to it, upholding your rights is more important than any job and standing up for your rights is not a legal cause for termination of your contract. So, it’s time to stand up and speak out.
Here are just a few of your workplace rights to bear in mind at all times. Familiarising yourself with them should help you to uphold them as best you can.
Personal Safety
Your employer must provide you with a safe workplace and they can only ask you to carry out tasks that you are adequately trained to carry out and that have been risk assessed.
Your personal safety is paramount in the workplace and if you are ever placed in a position that you feel is unsafe, you can remove yourself from it.
If you are ever asked to do something that you believe is unsafe, you can refuse to carry out the task. See GBW.law/employment-law for more information on this.
If you identify something in the workplace that appears to be unsafe that hasn’t been acknowledged by your employer, make sure to point it out to them. They may simply have not noticed a potential danger and can then take steps to put things right.
Discrimination
You cannot be discriminated against in the workplace. Characteristics that cannot be used as a cause for discrimination include:
- Gender
- Sexuality
- Race or Ethnicity
- Age
- Disability
- Religion or Belief System
- Being Pregnant
If you feel that you are being treated differently to others based on any of these things, seek legal advice as soon as you can.
Redundancy
Unfortunately, some employers do have to make employees redundant. But even in this situation, you still have rights.
Make sure that you are not being wrongfully dismissed from your job. When being made redundant, you can request a clear reason for why you are no longer being employed.
If you feel that the reason is prejudiced, you can seek legal action.
If you have been an employee for this employer for more than two years, you should be entitled to a redundancy pay out. This should help to tide you over until you are able to find new employment and obtain financial stability again.
As an employee you have rights – always remember this and do your utmost to ensure that both you and your rights are respected at all times.
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Do you know your workplace rights? Have you ever had to fight for them?
