When you start working for someone, it’s easy to see the situation as one where you are disposable. The employer holds all the power here, right? Well, that might be true in certain senses, but it’s important to remember that you wouldn’t be hired and paid if they didn’t need you, and it’s for that reason that you have rights that protect you from unfair treatment.
Knowing these can not only put you in a much more comfortable position as you go about your daily business, understanding that you have more power than you thought over your situation, but it can also help should things come to a head.
Workplace Accidents
Not every employee will be subject to the same risks of workplace accidents. The very nature of some jobs will mean that this prospect is one that you encounter regularly. However, that doesn’t mean that you aren’t at risk at all if you simply work in an office, for example, and these kinds of problems can emerge in any scenario. However, these accidents happening at work, when you were just there to do your job, might mean that someone is potentially at fault. Accidents happen, that is true, but if the accident was caused by something that should have been noticed, fixed, or otherwise taken care of, your employer might have failed you in some way. In these cases, you might be entitled to workmens compensation, and that’s something that you can learn more about by enlisting the help of proper legal counsel.
Unfair Dismissal
Going back to the idea of being disposable in the eyes of your employer, retaining this perception as fact might mean that you allow yourself to be dismissed from your employment for any reason, without argument. However, unfair dismissal is something that you can legally fight, and if you suspect that it’s happened to you, it’s worth getting your ducks in a row to see if there’s something that you can do about it. This job is there to support you financially, and stripping people like you of that financial connection for no good reason puts you at incredible risk, and that’s what these rights are here to prevent.
Understanding issues like this can put you in a much more confident position should this situation arise, allowing you to know exactly how to handle it.
Harassment and Bullying
While not everyone would go so far as to say that they enjoy their jobs, that is an entirely different conversation to one where people are talking about being made uncomfortable or distressed in their place of work. Everyone requires a way to support themselves and forcing yourself to go to an environment that you hate just to survive puts you in an incredibly difficult situation. Recognizing when this happens and having a support network that can help to guide you through it, can allow you to start taking action against it – though it’s first worth researching the exact form that this action would take.
