(AQA) MORRISONS, UNIT 2, (SECTION C)

Unit 2; SECTION C

Business section C

At Morrison’s they work under a number of laws that are there to protect staff and customers, here are the laws they work under:

The Equal Pay Act 1970:

The equal pay act states that any employee male/female should be paid the same wages for the same job that they do.

Health and Safety at Work Act 1974:

Morrison’s have to ensure that their store is a safe environment for their employees to operate in, as this is a legal requirement throughout Europe.

Both Morrison’s employers and employees have to obey by The Health and Safety Act whilst they are on the premises.

Sex Discrimination Act 1975:

Morrison’s having this act in place means that it is illegal for anyone to be discriminated upon gender, this applies whether it is direct or indirect.

Race Relations Act 1976:

It is unlawful for an employer to advertise for a person of a certain colour or origin, because the employer would then be guilty of direct discrimination.

Advertising for an employee that’s speaks a certain language means the employer would be guilty of indirect discrimination.

Under this act it is unlawful for anyone to be discriminated against, this is upon the grounds of a person’s colour, race, nationality or the person’s ethnic origin.

This applies to both direct and indirect discrimination.

Disability Discrimination Act 1995:

This law applies to Morrison’s because they are a business that has over fifteen employees.

The employee’s disability may be physical or mental but must be long term, meaning it must last more than one year, twelve months.

The employer must not treat a disabled person less favourably than a person with no disability, and the employer may be required to make reasonable adjustments to the workplace to allow a disabled person to do the job.

Employment Rights Act 1996:

The employment rights cover maternity leave, the right to opt out of Sunday working; it also includes the right to a minimum period of notice depending upon length of employment and the right to redundancy pay after two years of continuous employment.

Working Time Regulation Act 1998:

Morrison’s have a restriction on how many hours their employees must legally work; the law applies to employees on full time employment part time and casual workers. Under these regulations Morrison’s employees need not work more than forty eight hours a week, averaged over a seventeen week period, and are entitled to a minimum of four weeks paid holiday each year.

Health and safety risks:

There are a lot of accidents that could happen ay Morrison’s whilst the employees are working. Her are some of the accidents that could happen ...

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Working Time Regulation Act 1998:

Health and safety risks:

There are a lot of accidents that could happen ay Morrison’s whilst the employees are working. Her are some of the accidents that could happen whilst at work.

-Whilst cooking pastry products the baker may burn his/her hands on the oven

-An employee or customer could slip on a wet floor if it has not been mopped up, this could result in a serious injury

-When preparing fish the fishmonger needs to be careful not to chop off his fingers

-A shelf stacker must not stack shelves too high otherwise the products could fall and hit someone

Trade union:

A Trade union is a business or organisation, a trade union acts on behalf of employee rights.

Trade unions put pressure on employers on issues such as wages, benefits and conditions of employment.

ACAS:

ACAS stands for The Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service. They try to prevent and resolve problems in the work place.

They support will support employees with problems that they have, and will tell the employee whether their case is worth pursuing or not.

Employment tribunals:

The Employment tribunal is an informal court; it consists of a lawyer, the employer and the employee.

The Employment tribunal listens to the employer and the employee’s argument; they then decide whether the employee can gain financial compensation.

European Court of Justice:

The European Court of Justice consists of thirteen judges who are appointed to represent the EU.

Cases of employees who have been unfairly treated by the Employment Tribunals have their cases listened to.

What Morrison’s do to protect the health and safety of their employees:

I have identified the risks the employees are under whilst working a Morrison’s, and this is what Morrison’s do to prevent accidents happening.

> Cooking pastry products – To ensure that the baker does not burn his/her fingers on the oven they are given oven gloves

> Wet floor – A floor can come about easily, an item falling from a shelf, a customer dropping an item or an employee dropping an item, to make sure that no one has an accident i.e. slipping over the spillage; it is always immediately cleaned up.

> Fishmonger – The fish monger will be trained with knifes so that when preparing the fish they reduce the risk of cutting their fingers.

> Shelve stacking – Employees will ensure that they do not stack shelves to high with products so that they do not fall on a customer or another employee.

Employee groups:

The purpose of having official employee groups in a business is that they are there to sort out disagreements within the business.

How Morrison’s deal with disputes:

A dispute within Morrison’s between an employee and employer can be sorted out with a meeting, or they pass the matter to the official employee group that will deal with the situation.

The situation will be sorted out by the official employee group and they employee and employer have to accept what they propose.

I think that Morrison’s protect the safety of their employees to a very high standard; they make sure that the employee has the correct equipment to do the job required. For example the baker being given oven protects them from burning themselves.

The Official Employee Group contributes a lot in implementing national and local working arrangements are met.

They make sure that every employee is paid at least the minimal wage and meet the working time regulations of the company they are employed by.

Section C – introduction to the rights of employers and employees.

The relationship between employers and their employees is very important. Whether this is a happy and successful one will depend to a great extent on the way the rights and responsibilities of both parties are put into action. Both sides will have certain key expectations.

Expectations in the work place

Most of these expectations will be included in the contract of employment.

Health and safety

There are a number of general laws covering health and safety in the workplace. These are:

Health and safety at work act (1974)
Reporting of injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences regulations (1985)
Control of substances hazardous to health regulations (1988)
Noise at work regulations (1989)
Workplace (health, safety and welfare) regulations (1992)

Morrison’s will have all of these health and safety regulations in place. They will be very strict with employees to make sure these regulations are followed because they will be prosecuted should they break any of them.

For example:

Morrison’s sell bleach, washing powder and other toxic products, therefore they will have trained their staff to store, stack and display these products carefully and safely. This shows that the control of substances hazardous to health regulation act (1988) must be in place at Morrison’s.

Disputes, grievances and disciplinary procedures.

Disagreements at work can occur over the treatment of individual employees or groups of employees. Some of these disagreements may be disciplinary issues, others may be forms of grievances, while others may come under the heading of industrial relations problems. Most disputes will be dealt with at a local level and will be kept within the business.

Some disputes will become national issues and will have to be solved by national organisations. In a few cases, the dispute may involve international organisations and require the intervention of a body such as the European Court of Justice.

Disciplinary disputes

All firms will have a set of rules and regulations that they expect their employees to follow. If these rules are not followed correctly or perhaps deliberately ignored or broken, an employee may face disciplinary procedures. In some cases disciplinary procedures may take place if it is felt that an employee is not carrying out their duties satisfactorily.

Grievance disputes

These occur when an employee or group of employees feel unhappy about their treatment at work. The employees may think the firm has acted unreasonably or failed to take their interests into account. Sometimes grievances can lead to complaint and may even lead to disputes.

Resolving disputes

In the majority of cases, disputes will be settled before such action is taken. Most businesses have quite formal and detailed procedures to deal with disciplinary and grievance problems. This is normally a 3 stage process.

Handled by the business. This is the most common, and in the majority of cases, disputes are resolved at this stage.
if an agreement cannot be reached, then it is dealt with outside the business by ACAS (see their website for more information) ACAS is an independent organisation which offers employers, trade unions/ staff associations and individuals the opportunity to obtain unbiased assistance in solving the dispute.
Should these steps fail to resolve the dispute, the final stage is court action. Some cases can be taken further to the Court of Appeal, or the European Court of Justice.