As an employee, you have a lot of certain rights that you are able to champion, and it’s really important that you are fully aware of these. The truth is that you are going to be able to improve your working situation a lot if you are aware of these rights and especially if you know how to fight for them. So, it’s vital that you are looking into this and learning all you can about it. Below, we are going to take a look at some of the things that you are owed from your employer, and we’ll also discuss how you can ensure you actually get them. As you will shortly see, it’s easier than you think, but you will need to be aware of a few key things in particular.
By Team Savant
Image: Unseen Histories
Fair Payment
The idea of what counts as fair can of course vary, and you might have a different idea of it from the next person. There is no one set notion that works in all circumstances. However, what we can be sure of is that you deserve to be paid equally with your colleagues. That is, you should earn the same hourly rate or annual salary as your colleagues working the same job position, with the same amount of experience. This is what we tend to think of as fair payment.
Another element to this, however, is prompt payment. That is to say, you are also owed your paycheck at the right time each month, and it should be for the right amount. Mistakes sometimes happen, but if you are chronically being underpaid or having to wait too late to be paid, this is something you should take up with some Employment Law Solicitors as soon as possible.
As long as you are getting paid fairly and fully, you’ll be much more likely to appreciate the job, and want to stick around, so everyone’s a winner.
Safe Working Conditions
It’s also important that you have the proper working conditions in place, so you can make sure that you are as safe as possible while you are working. This is actually something that everyone has a little responsibility for. You have a responsibility to look after yourself at work, and to help make the workplace as safe as possible. But at the same time, your employer also has a duty to ensure that they are doing their part towards the environment being safe too. So as long as both of you are doing that, it’s going to be a much safer and more salubrious place to work overall.
In terms of what your employer should be doing, they should have carried out risk assessments on a rolling, organic basis, updating them as necessary. They should also be providing you with the necessary safety equipment to ensure that you are going to be safe as you work. If this is not in place, again it’s something that you should take up with them first and foremost, and then ultimately with someone else if the issue is still not resolved. You deserve to feel and to be genuinely safe at work.
Respectful Communication
Another thing that you deserve at work is to be treated with some basic human respect. This is something that is unfortunately lacking in certain industries and specific businesses, and this can mean that workers end up feeling as though they are not really appreciated for what they are. If you are feeling this way, then you are going to need to make sure that you speak up about it, because nobody deserves to be treated in this kind of disrespectful manner.
It can be subtle, or sometimes it can be a very overt kind of disrespect. In either case, you’ll want to make sure that you are doing something about it. At the first port of call, you’ll want to get in touch with your line manager. Beyond that, it’s about going over their heads if they have not fixed the issue. You deserve to be treated with respect, so don’t settle for anything less.
Those are just some of the things that you should be getting from your employer. If you are not, and you want to make sure that you are doing all you can to improve the situation, you’ll need to know how to speak up and how to get it. And sometimes you might need to take legal action or other kinds of action too.