The international and highly multicultural nature of the software industry can at times assuage feelings of unfair practices, but at other times factions can emerge that claim -- rightly or wrongly -- unfair treatment based on nationality or religion. Women, too, often feel (and often are) undervalued in the software industry, especially in lower-level positions. Wrongful discharge complaints are not as common, but the high level of competition in the industry and the rate of overturn at many companies has led to some significant issues and claims, perhaps more so than in other less competitive industries and organizations.
Closer to Home
At organizations in which this author has more direct experience, the relationship of these legal requirements to human capital management practices and policies has been somewhat more seamless than in other companies within the software industry. As a smaller company with a core group of employees that outsources much of the workload rather than expanding (in both size and complexity), human capital management is a more immediately obvious facet of the business to all concerned, allowing conflicts and grievances to surface and be dealt with quickly and easily rather than having them become entangled in a legal morass. This does not mean that there have not been allegations of unfair treatment, but these were handled very rapidly in a professional and direct manner.
Gaps Between Textual Ideals and the Real World
There was one incident that clearly identified a major gap between the real-world operation of the...
Bohlander & Snell (2009) identify as a wrongful discharge any termination of employment that occurs without specific cause in the behavior or performance of the employee after that employee's job security was either implicitly or explicitly acknowledged (pp. 573). An employee hired on a project-specific basis remained with the organization for over a year, but was eventually terminated for simple lack of need. This employee had thought that their continued employment after the completion of the initial project's completion constituted an implied contract, and threatened to file suit against the company. The negotiation of a substantial severance package was deemed by the management to be the simplest and most efficient way of handling the problem, so the issue was not put to a legal test, but an implied contract could very well have existed.
Conclusion
There are many ways that the legal requirements of existing labor laws affect the practical performance of human capital management activities and tasks. The issues described herein barely begin to scratch the surface of only two very broad areas in which labor law and human capital management interact; there are many more complex details that are affected by the same laws and other legal issues, as well. These laws can be seen as complications, but they also serve as guides to ethical behavior.
References
Bohlander, G. & Snell, S. (2009). Managing human resources. Mason, Ohio: Cengage.
