General Requirements with Respect to the Content of the Legal Bases

Employer’s Obligation to Pay Wages

The employer’s main (1) …………. is the obligation to pay wages. On the employer’s side, this obligation determines the whole (2) …………. relationship between employer and employee, as does the obligation to work on the employees (3) …………..

In the field of (4) ……………. law, the term “wage” is often reserved for workers in the sense of (5) ……….. workers (or wage-earners) whereas “salary” applies to white-collar workers and artists (or (6) ………… employees). (7) ………… or “pay” (sometimes also “emoluments”, “earnings” or “compensation”) are used as generic terms including all of these terms. The difference between all these (8) …………. is, however, (9) …………. irrelevant. Thus, for the sake of simplicity, they generally use the term “wage” in the following unless on the relatively few (10) ……….. where special cases for salaried workers require “salary” as the appropriate term.

If employee and employer are (11) ………… by a collective (12) ………….. - i.e. if they are members of the trade union and the employer’s association respectively, that have concluded a collective wage agreement (13) ……….. for the firm – or if, as a special exception, the collective wage agreement has been declared to be generally (14) …………. (most of these declarations (15) …………. to contract other than collective wage agreements), no further remuneration agreement is necessary.

Ex. 3. Read the following text. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate words from the box.

violate remuneration valuable

prerequisites principles legal

employer criteria obtain

discrimination requires consideration

honesty objective to maintenance

A company pension is usually similar in nature (1) ………………... and is thus a special type of (2) ……….. It is consideration paid to the employee because he works for the company for a long period, which, for many reasons, is (3) ……….. to the employer. This (4) …………. nature entails, for example, that, if both spouses work for an (5) ………, it is not possible to exclude one of them from the company pension scheme because he or she will (6) ………… a survivor’s pension after the spouse’s death.

The right to a company pension (7) ………. a special (8) …………… basis which must satisfy certain minimum requirements of equity and (9) ………... This means in particular that, as in the case of pay, the (10) ………… and the amount of the pension may be determined and graded only according to (11) ………. and verifiable (12) ………… e.g. the duration of employment in the company. Furthermore, the employer must not (13) …………. constitutional or legal (14) ………. when confirming company pensions, e.g. treat women differently from their male colleagues which is of particular importance with respect to age limits or part-time employment or make a difference between employees or limit the retirement pension to non-trade union members. If the company pension regulation specifies that a company widow’s pension is to be paid only to widows and that widowers are excluded from a corresponding right, this is also a (15) ……….. on the grounds of sex.

Listening 6. Listen to the lecture on the types of dismissal and make a list of them with the explanation of the meaning of each. When isn’t a summary dismissal a wrongful one? What is constructive dismissal?

Reading 3. B. Read the following article on Contract of employment, pay attention to the marked words and expressions.

It is usual practice for employers and employees to enter into a written agreement which sets out their respective obligations and rights, and which constitutes a contract of employment, either at the commencement of employment or shortly before. Clauses in the contract generally deal with pay, deductions, hours of work, time off and leave, place of work, absence, confidentiality, restrictions on the actions of an employee once employment is ended (known as a restrictive covenant), giving notice, the grievance procedure in the event of job loss, and variation of contract (meaning parties may agree to vary terms of contract but terms cannot be unilaterally varied, that is, by one party without agreement).

Employers are bound by the employment contract and statutory regulation as to how they may deal with employees, particularly in relation to the termination of employment. Failure to observe such obligations and regulations may give rise to a claim for wrongful dismissal (where the employer is in breach of contract), unfair dismissal (where the employer has not followed a fair dismissal and disciplinary procedure before terminating the contract), or constructive dismissal (where an employee resigns because of the conduct of his employer). Gross misconduct by the employee, for example, theft from the employer, may result in summary, that is, immediate, dismissal. In other circumstances, the employee may be made redundant, for example if the employer has ceased to carry on business.

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