Introduction
For approximately ten million employees and 125 million workers, the federal government, through the Department of Labor (DoL), coordinates numerous national laws that encompass numerous workplace activities. Employers can follow the law and stay out of trouble by having a basic grasp of the main statutes that apply to organizations. In order to determine how they should be implemented in the organizational setting, this paper will evaluate three federal laws on employment.
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
First off, both public and private groups must follow the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) when developing their pay and overtime policies. It is additionally handled by the Wage and Hour Division. Hence, FLSA necessitates the employer to compensate the covered employees who are not exempt from the federal minimum wage. For that reason, the overtime pay should be one-and-half-times that of normal remuneration. Moreover, it restricts the hours of work for children less than 16 years of age and during school hours. It is also noteworthy that it forbids the employment of individuals below 18 in dangerous jobs, such as the operation of machinery.
Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA)
Secondly, the Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA) set a comprehensive and exclusive workers' remuneration program for the reparation of an employee in the case of disability or death due to personal injury that occurs in the line of duty.
Black Lung Benefits Act (BLBA)
Thirdly, the Black Lung Benefits Act (BLBA) prescribes medical benefits and monthly cash payments to the former employees in the nation's coal mines. The targeted individuals are the people who are either infected by pneumoconiosis or are disabled by the disease. What is more, the law also provides the next-of-kin of a deceased miner with monthly benefits when a worker succumbs to black lung disease (Summary of the major laws, n.d.). Therefore, the three federal statutes address compensation for different employment situations and lay down whom, as well as how the money should be dispersed to the parties.
Compensation Strategies for Organizations
Thus, the three laws determine the compensation strategies that organizations should develop to address recompense in apparent, particular, and separate cases. For that matter, the Wage & Hour Division and the Office of Workers Compensation Programs (OWCP) administer FLSA and FECA respectively. Thus, organizations should submit their compliance forms to the administrators. To be more specific, the human resource management departments should show how they have set one-and-half-times the regular hourly pay for overtime compensation. Nevertheless, the regulation applies to federal employees and not casual workers. Secondly, FECA mandate organizations to strategize and set aside payment for employees who incur injuries while on duty. Thirdly, BLBA would require a company to not only compensate the disabled workers but, also pay for medical expenses accrued by the deceased employee. For that matter, the organization should also set strategies to investigate the sickness and cause of death for their current or former miners to ascertain that the reimbursement is justified.
Importance of Ethics in Implementation
Moreover, ethics should play a critical role on how organizations implement these laws because some of them, such as BLBA, do not have anyone to enforce the law. Therefore, some agencies ignore the necessity or urgency of paying minors who are sick or have passed on. Accordingly, an ethical organization should be transparent, inform the employees about the requirements, and portray ongoing advocacy through setting policies for compensation. To be more specific, enterprises dealing with mining can establish compensation committees to educate workers of their remuneration rights, the instances when payment is applicable, and benefits that survivors can claim (Hood, Hardy, & Simpson, 2016). Therefore, ethics are needed in an organization to ensure that workers are informed about their eligible compensation packages and instances when they can claim the payment.
Conclusion
The analysis of the three federal laws on reimbursement reveals how organizations should adopt particular strategies to inform and practice accordingly. Thus, they can avoid sanctions by various administrators. Besides, ethical approaches should apply by setting bipartisan compensation committees to ensure affected workers receive their due payment.
References
Summary of the major laws of the Department of Labor, (n.d.). Department of Labor. Retrieved from https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/majorlaws
Hood, J., Hardy, B., & Simpson, L. (2016). Workers' compensation and employee protection laws in a nutshell. West Academic.
