T42- Legislation

• What is legislation used for?

  • Legislation are sets of laws to put in place by government to protect businesses, employees and consumers
  • Legislation is needed to ensure businesses do not neglect stakeholders.
• what is consumer protection?

  where consumers want to buy good quality products at fair prices and to receive good customer service. otherwise they can get their money back.
• what is an example of consumer protection?

  • goods fit their description (avoid insurance claims)
  • must be satisfactory quality (must work)
  • goods are fit for purpose specifies
• how can legislation effect a business?

  • increase in costs - improving a product to meet legislation environments can be expensive and likely to increase costs
  • quality control - damaged products can damage a reputation (avoid selling damaged products)
  • customer complaints - they set up customer service centres to deal with complaints
  • changes in business practices to ensure they meet needs of customers
• What does employment legislation protect?

  Employers have responsibility towards their employees and legislation ensures businesses do not exploit their workers.

  
  

  e.g. Men and women are entitled to equal pay for work of equal pay
• What are industrial relations?

  • pay national minimum wage
  • employers required by law to ensure they pay their workers at least the national minimum wage
• what are illegal things to discriminate against?

  • Discrimination laws apply in many areas of employing staff
  • Recruitment
  • Employee contract – terms and conditions
  • Promotions and transfers
  • Providing training
  • Deciding what fringe benefits employees receives
  • Employee dismissal
• what are employee rights?

  • Reasonable notice before dismissal (depends on the job)
  • Rights to redundancy
  • Right to written employment contract
  • Right to request flexible working
  • Right to NMW
  • Right to take time off for parenting (both genders)
• How does employment legislation effect a business?

  • Compliance costs – it can be very expensive for a business to make sure they meet the requirements of a specific legislation. For e.g. doing checks on possible new employees, do they have entitlement to work in country?
  • Higher labour costs – businesses have to make this additional cost
  • Penalties – failure to comply can result in penalties
  • Changing working practices – must not discriminate based on gender
  • Flexibility – legislation allow as the laws are to rigid
• What are environmental issues?

  • Pollution/ emissions
  • Noise pollution
  • Light pollution
  • Discharge of waste water into sea
  • Traffic congestion
  • Disruption of wildlife habitats
  • Deforestation
  • Storage, disposal & recovery of business waste