Question

Legal and Ethical Environment of Business covers a broad scope of legal concepts and business standards, including such things as contract formation and remedies; employment relationships; product warranties and tort liabilities; government regulation and international business treaties.

Think of any personal or business experience you have had where you discovered a prior knowledge of the law would have been helpful.

Prepare a three page paper by answering the following questions to your boss, friend, etc.:

• Briefly describe the problem or issue. Explain what law was involved and how you became aware of it. Take care not to give confidential information.
• How did you handle the situation(s)? How would you have handled it differently if you had known more about the law in advance of the situation?
• Do you feel you know more now than you did then about the law generally? Why do you think so?

Answer 1

I came across this issue one day when I had to stay late at work for something very important. When I went to use the restroom before leaving, I came across the night time janitor. We stuck up a general conversation (being the only two people inside the premises at that time). This happened to him during his stay at his previous organization where he worked for half a decade.

There are local Fund laws applicable here. A portion of an employee's salary is deducted and is contributed to that fund. Generally, the employer contributes the same amount too. This deduction and contribution is from every paycheck. This fund is for retirement benefits generally along with other defined funds and retirement plans.

After working for over 5 years when he left that organization he found that the employer there was not contributing anything to the Fund for that employee. There was no employee contribution and no employer contribution. This person being naive did not know what to do and left without being able to do anything about it.

That night in the office after our conversation I decided to help him out. That amount was over 25% of his total 5 years income. I dug up the bare act and decided to read it and take legal opinion if required. When we approached his previous employer regarding the issue he asked us to prove the employment first. It became difficult since there were no records available with the janitor. Fortunately we were able to locate a copy of the records with a consultant who got him the job.

The law involved in this situation was that the employer is the Principal Employer even if the employee is under a contractor's payroll. The Principal Employer cannot claim exemption based on this fact.

After back and forth emails, a few threats of filing a suit and some pressure from the people in the same industry he agreed to pay the entire amount along with highest rate of bank interest for the entire period till date of payment.

Non payment would have sent him to prison. The labor laws are very strict. Also the penalty amount involved would have been way more than what was required to be paid to the janitor.

Had the Janitor known about his rights earlier, this issue could have been resolved at the time of his leaving his previous organization. He would have also kept his records and understood the importance.

After this incident, I personally have become more aware and careful about the rights that are available to me under various situations. This has happened by reading about more general laws applicable to all citizens of my country. For example, no matter how costly or how big a hotel/restaurant is, any person can walk in to use the loo or to consume water. If the hotel/restaurant declines, they can face legal issues. This has also helped me interpret various legal provisions in general.