Retail Associate Training: Health, Safety and Working Conditions

There are laws in every nation that govern the working conditions.  The laws might vary depending on the country, but every country's laws set the standards for:
Minimum wage: Employers must pay both full-time and part-time workers at least the minimum wage. 
Hours of work: This is the number of hours for each working day. 
Overtime pay: Overtime pay is the wage that employers must give workers who work overtime. 
Meal breaks: Workers must have a meal break each working day. The length of this meal break is determined either by the law, by the employer, or by union contracts. 
Public holidays: Some countries have many public holidays. Others have too few!! Workers who qualify for paid public holidays don’t have to work on these days, but are still paid their regular wages for the day.

Vacation pay: Workers are entitled to a minimum number of days of paid holidays each year. 
Pregnancy and parental leave and benefits: This is the time off for a new parent. While on pregnancy leave, employees can receive employment insurance maternity benefits. While on parental leave, employees can receive employment insurance parental benefits. 
Deductions: These are payments that employers can legally deduct from an employee’s paycheque. 
Termination of employment: The law determines how employees or employers end their contracts and how much termination pay must be paid.

Protections from discrimination and harassment: Treating each other with respect is a start.Most modern countries have laws that prohibit discrimination against a person because of race, colour, religion, or sex. Employers and workers must act according to the principles described in this law. For example, it is illegal to sexually harass people or to make jokes about people of different races.

Discrimination
Discrimination is being treated differently from other people. There are situations in which the employer is allowed to be selective on the basis of citizenship, age, or disability. But generally it is against the law to discriminate against people because of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, age, record of offences, marital status, same-sex partnership status, family status, or handicap. 

Harassment
Harassment is a situation in which someone threatens or insults you. Racial harassment includes racial jokes and rude comments. Sexual harassment includes unwanted touching, sexual comments, sexual jokes, and suggestions. Discrimination and harassment can occur in job advertisements, questions about experience, job applications, job interviews, and in the way workers treat each other and how the employer treats the workers.

Occupational Health and Safety Act
The Occupational Health and Safety Act helps to protect the health and safety of workers in the workplace. This Act is based on the idea that employers and employees must work together to create a safe and healthy workplace.
Employers must do everything possible to protect workers’ health and safety, and workers must work with employers to identify and solve safety problems in the workplace.
The Act gives workers four basic rights:
-  the right to participate in keeping their workplace safe and healthy
-  the right to know about health and safety hazards 
-  the right to refuse work that they think is unsafe
-  the right to stop work.
Occupational health and safety applies to all workplaces; however, some workplaces will have more health and safety hazards than others. 

Workers’ Compensation Act
The Workplace Safety and Insurance Act (or relavant acts in every country) states that workers who are injured at work or get sick from their work can receive compensation and assistance to get back to work. No injury is too small to report! Workers must report any work caused injury to their employer immediately.