Virginia Employment Laws Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Virginia Employment Laws - Essay Example Hiring professionals or other workers from foreign countries is always an option for management of human resources but t is always within the bounds of government policies and quotas provided by the governments of nations. For instance, the United States government and congress has always been revising its immigrant workers quota numbers from the year 1988 in order to favor employers and industries that need such workers. In the year 1998, the quota number was at 65000, which was further revised upwards to 115000 in the year 1999, and later to 195000 when the government went to the press seeking to revise the quota in order to benefit in this option of hiring of employees from other countries (Virginia Department of Labor and Industry, 2012). Many firms always opt for hiring foreign sourced workers in order to gain competitive advantage. There are many aspects to foreign employee hiring; for instance, some of these employees come cheaper than the domestic based employees in the same industry. Every immigrant program has its advantages and disadvantages. Hiring of foreign professionals, nonetheless, comes with its fair share of issues and challenges. It is not as costless as many people would think it is. This option always raises strategic issues on all levels of management in an organization. Among the issues that managers have to deal with when hiring foreign sourced employees or workers is the fact that the managers have to ensure that these employees have the right visas for the positions they have been sourced to take in the organizations (HG Experts, 2012). The United States of America has seen the number of immigrants into its borders increase as many people from various countries in the world go to America to seek better lives for themselves and for their families (West & Bogumil, 2012). These workers bring a lot to the American economy just like other employees in America. Immigrant workers are hard workers and also boost the purchasing power; which co nsequently leads to a boost to the economy of the country. Over the years immigrants have faced oppressive, exploitative, as well as deprived conditions in the places of work in the United States. Most of them are paid very low wages, and often have very little potential to advance in their jobs; let alone the potential for fulfillment. Additionally, these workers are faced with very hazardous working conditions. As a result of these conditions, therefore, the state of Virginia has come up with state laws to govern the way employees are treated within the state. To begin with, Virginia has the Virginia Payment of Wages laws which employers are required to go by in paying their employees; whether they are citizens or foreigners. Under this wage law, the employers are required to establish regular rates of pay, as well as payment dates (Virginia Department of Labor and Industry, 2012). All employees have to be paid their full wages and salaries as well. However, the employers are not bound by law to pay such benefits as holiday, sick, and vacation payments to their employees. Additionally, the employers are not allowed to make deductions on the employees’ pay in order to make payments like taxes and so on. Secondly, there is the Virginia Minimum Wage Act which applies to all employers who do