The Legal Issues Involved in Personnel Management

The legal issues surrounding the management of personnel are a complex set of guidelines that leads the frustration of many managers in today's job market. The benefit of all of this complexity is that guidelines are often highly specific with little over-generalization. The specificity of the guidelines means that rules are typically clearly written and easy to reference. The downside of these clearly written guidelines means that not staying on top of current laws and policies could put an employer in a situation that is far from legally ambiguous. Educating yourself on the development, implementation, and enforcement of workplace law is essential to becoming a manager that is able to navigate the sometimes complex legality of the workplace. The key to being a manager that remains legally safe in the workplace is in knowing the laws that govern the workplace, methods for prevention of violations, and the processes following a violation that has occurred.

Most employees will recognize that "people do not have the same rights to freedom or liberty as they have as citizens" (Berman 41). When an employee works for company he or she is willingly giving up some of his or her rights in exchange for employment. Employment laws serve as a means to protect the employer and the employee in this relationship of purchasing time and rights. The laws of the workplace are by no means static; change has been a constant in the past 150 years of American workplace law.

The Historical Context for Employment Law

The earliest forms of employment policies were derived from the constitution. The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution states, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude...shall exist within the United States..." This was perhaps the earliest form of law that aimed to protect the American employee from unfair labor standards. It effectively eliminated slavery and set the stage for a variety of employment laws to come into effect in years to come.