Employment Law

Employment Law Encounters Paper

Sonia I. Irizarry

University of Phoenix

LAW/531

Business Law

Prof. Lirio Bernal Sánchez

July 21, 2011

Employment Law Encounters

This paper will address the legal issues that can be present in workplace and how a manager should proceed in 3 different situations. For each encounter there is an evaluation of the laws and risks in the employment relationship. Also, advice will be given for each encounter.

For this encounter we will conduct the Legal Issues in Reduction of Workforce simulation (University of Phoenix 2011), and identify what legal issues are present? What alternatives does the manager have and what are the benefits and liabilities associated with each choice? Employers have the power to conduct layoffs whose justification does not cause legal conflicts. The employment contract is governed by state and federal labor laws, as well as the Civil Code of Puerto Rico. The Department of Labor (DOL) administers and enforces more than one hundred eighty federal laws which apply to conflicts of dismissal. Dismissal is not prohibited in Puerto Rico, an exception in dismissal occurs when it is against specific laws such as Act 100 and 80, among others. An unjustified cause of dismissal requires the employer to pay compensation to the employee.

The simulation presents Fast Serve Inc. which is a company that generates over 25 million involved in the direct marketing of branded sports apparel. This company decides to start an online distribution but eventually, they decide to eliminate that division. Sonia Irizarry is a senior manager in the Human Resources department at Fast Serve Inc. and the administration gave him the task to implement a top management decision that benefits the company. She must present a plan in which she has to layoff three employees from five possible candidates of the company, two of the three dismissals will be discussed, while the employer, Mrs. Jenny Mills,...