Legal and Regulatory Framework Essay

There are many acts that exist to prevent discrimination, laws that protect age, sex, race, and religion. These acts are there to stop direct discrimination; when someone is treated less favourably than another. The company John Lewis is mostly affected by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975/97; to help stop judgement because of sex. They are affected by this act because of stereotypes; such as technological jobs that are expected to be done by a male, so when the company searches for an applicant they would mainly focus on males, making females have a lower chance of getting the job. This can also be related to an ethical issue, which is to never put the same gender in an interview panel, which is never done so that a person cannot be picked because of their sex. The company deals with this by looking carefully at each candidate, and may also consider leaving out the gender section, to not be stereotypical when choosing the right candidate. The Equal Pay Act 1970 would also affect this company just as it affects any other companies; it would force the company to pay its employees equally, ignoring gender. The company handles this by properly giving each employee their pay without considering gender to be an issue. The National Minimum Wage makes the company pay the minimum amount set by the government to their employees, this act would make the company suffer when it is in a difficult situation and they need money by decreasing the amount needed to pay to employees who are needed in the business. The company would deal to this law by making sure that the budget is enough and to see if they can get rid of an employee if the potential candidate seems better. The Race Relations Act 1992 stops discrimination on race, nationality, ethnic origin or national origin. One example that could happen is not involving a race when advertising the position, which would harm the candidates, and which will lead to harm to the business. The company would deal with this by making sure that no one is missed, and that not a particular race is picked for a job and given more of an advantage than another. The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 & 2005 helps make a disable person get treated fairly when being interviewed; this act would affect the business because it they would have to pay equipment for the disabled, such as a wheelchair to help make the employee feel comfortable and not judged. Employment Acts 2002 and 2008, and the Work and Families Act 2006, covers maternity and paternity leave and pay, flexible working hours for carers of adults, as well as improved communication between employers and employees during maternity and paternity leave. This would affect the business because they would need new employees to cover the leave, as well as an extra pay for the new employee and the one leaving. The European Working Time Directive introduces the maximum working week of 48 hours over a certain number of weeks, as well as restriction on the length of nightshifts, rest periods and annual leave. This would affect the business because they won’t be able to employ someone longer to complete the job, which would lead to time loss. The company would deal with this by spreading the time between different employees equally. Ethics is what is expected to be done, and there are many ethics that are expected to be followed by a business when recruiting, one of them is to always ask the same questions in an interview, one simple reason to do this is to be fair to all of the candidates, but the main reason is compare them equally, as well as knowing what is needed to be known from all of them, which would help the business know the right candidate that would help the business. Another thing that a business is expected to do is to not make the interviewees related to the candidates, and the main reason to do that is to never make the results bias, an example of that is a candidate being chosen because he/she is related to the owner of the business. This would increase the chance of other candidates to be chosen who might have potential in the business. One other thing that the business is expected to do is to always make a promotion available, to help increase the motivation of the employees so that the job can be done, and to also helps make all the employees have the same opportunities, which would in return make the number of candidates  increase, making the chance of them having the right employee higher. Firing someone when it needs to be done is also something that the business is expected to do, as it will make the candidates aware that the business deals with a problem when they report them, and it would also be beneficial to the business at it would stop people from causing trouble or stealing form the business.