Legal Issues of Work Environment for Students

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Table of Contents

Introduction
HIV/AIDS
Racisms
Intimidation and Bullying
Sexual Harassment
Stress
Cultural Differences
References

Introduction

There are a number of challenges facing students in the Educational environment and workplaces. This needs to be considered by all students and workers as they affect their learning and working lives. These challenges and legal issues that require students to families themselves with are current, future, and past and are common in all working places and learning institutions. Among the legal challenges encountered at Educational and working places are related to the treatment of HIV/AIDS colleagues, Racism, Sexual harassment, Bullying and intimidation, Cultural differences, Stress, Political intentions, and Riots and strikes.

HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS affects teaching staff, non-teaching staff, students, and the community at large. A workplace and educational environment is a place where there are many people with different moral standards and motives—proper laws governing the relationship between the interaction to avoid spread and victimizations. Students, workers, and other community members should follow these rules set out. Failure institutions teaching programs will be affected adversely.

Also, the institution should be able to provide safety measures like providing condoms in toilets. When a teaching employee is affected by HIV/AIDS, absenteeism creeps in, and other teaching schedules are affected not only his/her but also for the other staff members as the teaching schedule will have to be altered. The governing the problem should be clear and followed by all.

Racisms

This is another legal issue that needs to be properly articulated and followed. Educational places and working environments have many people from diverse races. Academic staff, students, and non-academic staff may practice racism. Persons or groups towards others on the grounds of their color and ethnic origin may define racism as offending expressions or acts. People being of diverse cultures, racisms take the following forms:-

Verbal or written derogatory name-calling, jokes, remarks, gossip, insults, and other offensive languages against one’s race.
One may incite others to commit such racism. For example, a teaching staff inciting students
Continual or regular unfair allocation of duties and responsibilities to a person of a particular race as if he is the only one in that workplace.
Withholding information or excluding one from meetings, social places like swimming pools, playfields, libraries, etc. will amount to racism
Watching racist movies touching one’s race while he’s there and making offending remarks.

The educational workplace should have a proper code of ethics regarding racism and how to deal with it. If not properly handled, it may lead to some teaching staff resigning, others offering poor services, and students discontinuing their learning process. There should be proper rules that are followed relating to this form of harassment.

Intimidation and Bullying

Bullying and intimidation are offensive acts that humiliate an individual. In the educational working place, bullying is common among staff members and students; it may take the form of students to the student, student to non-teaching staff, even to some groups. Bullying and intimidation includes the following;

Threats, shouting at, uncalled for outbursts, open aggression
Invasion of personal property and space
The unreasonable setting of objectives and deadlines or an abrupt change of objective
Use of derogatory language, remarks, insults, jokes, gossip, and slander.
Taking credit for someone’s work but avoiding blame.
excluding oneself from information unjustifiably
twisting someone’s statements
threatening to report or take action with the aim of intimidation
monitoring one’s work unjustifiably
Pestering, spying, and the following someone
inciting others to commit bullying or to intimidate

The educational workplace should have proper guidelines as to how to deal with the above challenge being a place of many people with diverse beliefs, cultures, and motives. Lack of clear policy may lead to unrest, strikes, or separation from affected groups or individuals.

Sexual Harassment

This is common in almost all educational workplaces, and it can be defined as an act of sexual discrimination and can be uncalled for sexual comments or activities in learning, teaching, administration working, or social situations. It may involve people of unequal status in the workplace. The following includes sexual harassment:

unwelcome physical contact
Suggestive gestures and comments emphasizing the gender or sexuality of an individual
Requests for sexual favors
Pornographic, degrading, or indecent pictures
Exclusion of one’s gender from a group discussion or meeting
The promise of rewards for sexual favors that may misuse workplace resources

This is a very serious challenge that requires proper procedures for its reporting, investigation, and handling should be fair. The procedures adopted should have the following features/principles

should have the intention of good faith
Confidentiality
Should show fairness to both parties
Should allow representation if the matter is serious

Training is essential because so much information is disseminated to staff that could otherwise be uninformed on the dangers of sexual harassment. Training usually informs workers of their rights and marks their positions in work. This makes them be aware of favors and helps them to draw boundaries at their workplaces. Also, the workers are taught how to accord respect to their seniors and stick to their principles and believes firmly but kindly. Either they are also taught on whom to report to in confidentiality or if they fear they can report anonymously.

While carrying out this training, the junior and senior staff are usually separated so to prevent alienation and victimization by their seniors. They can also share their experiences freely. The employees are taught how sexual exploitation is propagated and spread through an organization and the dangers of it on the company and on the individual, like loss of career. They are also taught how harassment causes humiliation, mental and psychological injury, and loss of dignity at the workplace.

Most senior staff has blackmailed their juniors on mistakes they made or some unfavorable act that they know about them and ask for sexual favors. They are also taught on worker compensation in case of wrongful termination of work because they reported it. They are also taught when they can sue and also lawyers who can represent them when it reaches a critical level. Senior staff has been known to exploit their positions in an organization to promise junior workers the much-anticipated promotions.

Some employees have a tendency to cheat. In this organization, a thorough investigation is carried out to make sure that the allegations are worthy and have evidence. In reporting the cases, the areas of improvement should be on the methods used. This could be through keeping the written information like short messages, notes, and any other material. The administration should install surveillance systems in offices. There should be a certain dress code observed to cut down on cases where women dress so provocatively and sending suggestive messages across.

Senior officers who have been implicated in this offense more than once should have their past behavior investigated and counseling provided. This is to prevent more cases of abuse in a system. In case the workers feel harassed, their workstations should be changed and given due protection in case to avoid unfair job termination.

Stress

Educational workplaces possess unique challenges that may lead to stress. Stress can be defined as difficulties experienced while coping with pressures and demands; stress in the educational workplace may arise because of the following

unfair allocation of work or work one is not able to handle
Bullying and intimidation
Sexual harassment
Poor rewards and recognition policies
Lack of proper working and research tools and materials
Large class for teaching staff to handle.

A policy should be put in place that aims to:

Promote a culture of participation, consultation, and communication
Provide enough materials and tools for work
Encourage teamwork
Identifying causes of stress

Cultural Differences

Educational working places have people from different cultures. Cultural beliefs influence human behaviors to a great extend. As cultures differ, it makes it difficult to design an environment that is conducive to performance and satisfaction you final a colleague who beliefs that women should not expose her face, this will make it hard for women to associate with him to such person he may also find difficulties in relating to them. Cultural differences influence the following in educational workplaces

Mode of dressing
Food served, some eat snakes and frogs while to others it’s poison
Associations in the institution
Language used

Harassment policy- harassments take the form of undermining one’s sex, race, and even bullying. The policy should aim to correct this injustice through a proper grievance procedure. A good grievance procedure should have the following principles: – Good faith, confidentiality, fairness, and give employees equal opportunities in Defence. Examples of harassment include:-

physical conduct ranging from the invasion of personal space and/or inappropriate touching to serious assault,
verbal, written, and e-mail harassment through derogatory remarks, jokes, insults, offensive language, gossip, and slander,
sexually suggestive and unwelcome comments or derogatory remarks, including any regarding the sexual orientation or preference of an individual,
Unwanted requests or pressure for sexual favors,
Unjustifiable exclusion, like Withholding information, not talking to, not including any discussions or meetings, or exclusion from social occasions,
Sexual and racial graffiti or displays on computer screens,
Intrusion by pestering, spying, following, stalking,
unfair allocation of work and responsibilities,
incitement to commit harassment,
open aggression, threats, shouting, unpredictable outbursts,
deliberately setting objectives with unreasonable deadlines or changing objectives unfairly,
Belittling, marginalizing, or ridiculing;
taking for someone else’s work but never taking the blame if something goes wrong,
twisting something someone says or does,
Threatening disciplinary or other action deliberately to intimidate.

References

Conte A; (1999); Sexual Harassment in the Work Place; Aspen Pub. Glassglow university website.

Croft, M. (1995), “The Bill to Change”, Marketing Week, pp. 29-30.

Jennings Croft, M. (1995), “The Bill to Change”, Marketing Week, pp. 29-30.

M..M.; (2005) ; Business :its legal, ethical and global environment.

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