a tort refers to a civil wrong
According to Rabin (2016), a tort refers to a civil wrong, which leads to legal liabilities for the person committing the tortious acts. In practice, torts can result in harm or suffering of losses. In the USA, the tort laws are extensively underpinned by the Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England and the English law (Goldberg, 2005). One of the core parts of tort law is the employment-related torts. As discussed by Corbett (2018), the employment-related torts are geared towards imposing liabilities to the parties that have caused harm of proving relief to the injured parties. It is important to note that the term harm refers to the detriments or losses suffered by an individual. In contrast, injury on employment-related torts involves infringement onto legal rights.
The confines of the employee-related torts are set by the state statutory laws or universal laws. It is important to note that many employment-related torts are guided by the Restatement of Torts (2nd) despite tort laws varying depending on the state. Similar to other torts, the employment-related torts can be put into three broad categories. The first category is the strict liability torts, which refer to the liability of the defendant irrespective of mental state and intent. The second category is the negligence torts where a person’s conduct shows gross omissions and actions where ordinary prudence followed under such circumstances is not exercised. For example, a worker, not switching machines, as usual, leading to accidents. The third category of employment-related torts is the intentional torts where the defendant intentionally commits certain acts which cause injury or harm.
Across the employment-related torts, four facets of the tort laws are evident. These are injury, causation, breach of duty, and duty (Duff, 2017). Additionally, the employment torts seek to link legal liabilities to practices in the workplace as well as focusing on the employment practices. Examples of these employment torts are; invasion of privacy, wrongful termination, infliction of emotional distress ad sexual harassment. The employments torts relating to these areas seek to protect employees because any breaches of these torts can bring adverse legal consequences and liabilities, which can harm the company through legal action. For the employment-related torts, they can be applied when the company practices are severe, and the severity of the issue provides an impetus to authorities to get involved. Additionally, employees can also initiate legal action, which typically is on different levels due to variability in torts.
The employment-related torts have found increasing applications in modern workplaces as employment areas become complex. One of the regions where employee-related tort laws are being extensively applied is sexual harassment and workplace bullying. Sisk (2019) and Cavico and Mujtaba (2016) indicate that as workplaces become diverse and accommodate more women, sexual harassment has been on the rise. This precedent has led to the utilization of employment torts addressing this area. Apart from this, the focus on mental health has grown, thus shedding a spotlight on emotional abuse and workplace bullying. This has also led to the introduction of more tort laws addressing the subject.
Opinion statements
I believe that employment-related torts are essential facets of employment laws that help in safeguarding employees. For instance, strict liability torts are essential in protecting employees who work in an extremely hazardous and dangerous occupation such as transport of dangerous waste r explosives. For employees who work in areas where risk cannot be eliminated, the employees have protection by the law. As such, under the circumstances, the company or defendant is liable irrespective of the level of risk aversion undertaken. This strategy helps to compel companies to invest and make workplaces safer.
Safety and welfare of employees and service users are also improved through the application of the Vicarious Liability torts which impose liability on an individual when injury or harm is caused by the other. For instance, when a superior provides instructions that lead an employee into committing an act of negligence, the liability falls on the employer and supervisor because the employee was working within the scope of work.
In general, employment-related torts are important tools that are helping to make employers responsible and safeguard employees from vices, such as sexual harassment, battery, assault, and emotional distress.