Labour Laws Quiz

Overview of Labour Laws

• Labour laws mediate the relationship between workers, employers, unions, and the government.

• Collective labour law governs the relationship between employee, employer, and union, while individual labour law concerns the rights of employees at work.

• Employment standards are social norms for the minimum acceptable conditions that employees are allowed to work in.

• The first major piece of labour legislation was passed in 1802 in England, which limited working hours to 12 a day and abolished night work.

• The Factories Act 1833 prohibited child labour under 18 years of age and provided for inspectors to enforce the law.

• The Factory Act 1847 restricted the working hours of women and children in British factories to 10 hours per day.

• The basic feature of labour law in almost every country is that the rights and obligations of the worker and the employer are mediated through a contract of employment between the two.

• Many jurisdictions define the minimum amount that a worker can be paid per hour, and while a majority of industrialized countries have a minimum wage, many developing countries do not.

• The living wage is higher than the minimum wage and is designed so that a full-time worker should be able to support themselves and a small family at that wage.

• Maximum working hours are set by law in many countries, and laws control whether workers who work longer hours must be paid additional compensation.

• Health and safety laws are in place to protect workers, and the earliest English factory law was passed in 1802 and dealt with the safety and health of child labourers in textile mills.

• Laws prohibit discrimination against employees, particularly racial discrimination or discrimination on the basis of gender, age, or disability.Overview of Labour Law

• Labour law regulates the relationship between employers, employees, and trade unions.

• Collective labour law concerns the relationship between employer, employee, and trade unions, and regulates the wages, benefits, and duties of employees.

• Trade unions are organized groups of workers who engage in collective bargaining with employers and aim to promote the interests of their members.

• Workplace participation refers to the legally binding right for workers as a group to participate in workplace management.

• Workplace statutes in many countries require employers to consult their workers on various issues.

• Strike action is the worker tactic most associated with industrial disputes, and most countries allow strikes under certain conditions.

• The International Labour Organization (ILO) coordinates international labor law by issuing conventions that member states can voluntarily adopt and ratify.

• The European Union (EU) has extensive labor laws that officially exclude matters around direct wage regulation, the fairness of dismissals, and collective bargaining.

• Australia has a minimum wage and workplace conditions overseen by the Fair Work Act of 2009.

• Child labor was not seen as a problem throughout most of history, but it has been disputed since the beginning of universal schooling and the concepts of laborers' and children's rights.

• Most child labor in the 21st century occurs in the informal sector, "selling on the street, at work in agriculture, or hidden away in houses - far from the reach of official inspectors and from media scrutiny."

• Conflicts of laws arise where workers work in multiple jurisdictions, and it is necessary that a court has jurisdiction to hear a claim.Overview of Labour Laws in Different Countries

• In Canada, "labour law" pertains to unionized workplaces while "employment law" deals with non-unionized employees.

• In China, the basic labour laws are the Labour Law of People's Republic of China (1994) and the Labour Contract Law of the People's Republic of China (adopted at the 10th National People's Congress, effective 2008).

• France enacted laws mandating paid vacations and reducing the workweek to 40 hours, excluding overtime, between 1936 and 1938.

• Poland's main act on Labour Law is the Polish Labour Code from 1974, which provides regulations on employee benefits, annual leave, termination of employment contracts, discrimination in the workplace, disciplinary liability, and other employment-related issues.

• India has over 50 national and many more state-level laws governing work, with the Constitution of India having many articles directly concerning labour rights.

• In Indonesia, new labour laws were established in the early 2000s following regime change and with support from the International Labour Organization.

• The United Kingdom's employment laws come from Acts of Parliament, secondary legislation, case law, and retained Community law following the UK's former membership of the European Union.

• The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 in the United States set the maximum standard workweek to 44 hours, which was reduced to 40 hours in 1950.

• The National Labor Relations Act in the United States guarantees workers the right to form unions and engage in collective bargaining.

• Halakhic labour law began in the Bible and developed further in the Talmudic law.Halakhic Perspectives on Labor Law

• The Hafetz Hayim interprets the worker's right for timely payment in a way that favors the employee over the employer.

• The first halakhic authority to address trade unions and the right to strike was in the 1920s.

• Rabbis A.I Kook and B.M.H. Uziel tend to corporatist settling of labor conflicts.

• Rabbi Moshe Feinstein adopts the liberal democratic collective bargaining model.

• Since the 1940s, halakhic literature on labor law has adopted the liberal democratic approach.

• Halakhic literature has addressed a growing range of labor law questions.

• The Hafetz Hayim does not refer to new questions of employment relations.

• The right to strike is problematic in terms of Talmudic law.

• Halakhic literature on labor law has been enriched by books and articles.

• Halakhic literature on labor law could easily be anchored in Talmudic law.

• The interpretation of worker rights tends to favor employees over employers.

• Rabbis have different approaches to resolving labor conflicts.