Employee Rights and Company Liability

This assignment delves into a legal case involving an employee who is suing their employer due to adverse working conditions that led to the development of a disease. The company's negligence in providing a safe and healthy work environment is highlighted, with emphasis on the employee's right to a proper working atmosphere. The analysis explores the company's potential liability and the implications for both parties involved.

Law of obligation

Table of Contents
“Need of a government body in order to maintain Human rights ” ...............................................4
“Case of Mc Ghee vs National Coal Board (1973) House of Lords”..................................................6

INTRODUCTION
In this article review we will read about the need of a government designed body in order to
regulate the check on human rights violation . The first part of this review consist of few basic right
of a human being that has been violated commonly across the globe and various rules and bodies in
against to the violation of these rights. This also includes the main work that has to be done by
them. In the other half of this article we would read about the case of Mc Ghee in which he has
faced the violation of right to just and favourable conditions of work and he has sued the company
and proved his point of view in the court.
“Need of a government body in order to maintain Human rights ”
Human rights are the rights which inherent to all human beings, regardless to gender,
nationality, place where they live, gender, colour and other categorization. As a result these rights
are non discriminatory which means that they belong to everyone entitled to them and cannot be
excluded from them. While all human beings are entitled to human rights not everyone experience
the equality throughout the world (Johnson, K., Scott, J., Rughita, B., Kisielewski, M., Asher, J.,
Ong, R. and Lawry, L., 2010). Many government and individuals ignore human rights and in an
unaccepted manner exploit human beings.
There are a variety of human rights that include:-
 Civil rights are those rights of a citizen to political and social freedom and equality.
According to this right every human being has the right to be treated equally but this right is
mostly violated in almost all the countries depending upon a person's cast, creed, skin colour
and his living standard . The biggest example of violation of these rights are slavery of
human being . South Africa is a country where people have black skin due to the
environmental factors but they have faced colour discrimination in most of the other
countries . In order to give them equal rights government officials have changed their laws
so that African people would have equality in their country.
 The right to life is a part of human rights which state that every individual has the right to
live . This right can not be violated in any circumstances but The biggest example of
violation of this right is girl child death at the time of their birth(Dembour, M.B., 2010).
Most of the parents want to have a boy child so that they could have a successor for their
family and their religion . In order to reduce the impact of violation of these rights various
NGOs have started with a message of “save the girl child”.
 The right not to be subjected to torture or any other inhuman activities according to this act
a human being must not do or tolerate any inhuman activities or any kind of torture but this

right is violated normally everywhere . In order to maintain the decorum of the society
various laws have been made to maintain law and order.
 Right to be free from gendered violence state that every human being should be treated
equally there should be no violation among gender of a person but forcing a girl to be a
prostitute is an example of violation to this right . There are several laws which are made by
government in order to decrease the impact of violation of these rights(Merry, S.E. and
Conley, J.M., 2011).
 Right to social security is a human right which state that we should provide assistance to
those who are unable to work due to accident, sickness, disability etc. in order to protect this
act government has made several laws according to these laws, person who is facing
violation of this law would be supported by the government by various schemes like pension
form the government and various offers while they travel in government buses, trains,taxi
etc.(Dembour, M.B., 2010)
 Another right is right of children to special protection under this act if parents of a child is
not able to take care of him due to any reason like financial reason or any other reason so
government would give all the rights of that child who is willing to accept him/her.
These are some of the basic rights which every human have about there are some countries
where violation of these rights are really very common like child labour, discrimination on the basis
of colour and gander. There are laws and regulations against the violation of these rights but they
are not followed on a strict basis . There should be a separate department to maintain the regular
following of laws related to human rights(Caney, S., 2010) . This department should have proper
powers in their hands to act against the violation of these laws and these laws should be same to
every person at any post and should not discriminate according to the lifestyle of a person.
“Case of Mc Ghee vs National Coal Board (1973) House of Lords”
It is a case which tells that the claimant worked at the defendant's brick works. It tells that
when he was working and performing the normal duties he was not exposed to much dust but then
in some time he was asked to work on the brick kilns which had a hot dusty environment. The
defendant was in trouble here. It could be seen that the defendant was in breach of duty for not
providing the washing facilities as well as the showering facilities. Due to this the claimant had to
cycle home being covered in all sorts of dust(Dembour, M.B., 2010). Due to this the claimant
contracted dermatitis for this. He was being given a bad environment to work in which was
resulting in deteriorating the health of the claimant. Now there were two possible cases here : the
brick dust which he encounter during the course of his employment which was not attributable to a
breach of duty and then the brick dust which was he exposed to while going back to home was

attributable to the breach. These points had to be kept in the point. Here the defendant tried to
sought up by distinguishing the Ward law's case by providing various arguments stating that every
particle of dust inhaled played its part in causing the onset of disease whereas in the case it is not
proved that every minor abrasion played its part(Dembour, M.B., 2010).
The claimant here needed to show that the dust attributable lead to the breach of materially
increased the risk of contract dermatitis. Due to this he developed dermatitis and it was a serious
disease to be taken care of. So,he took care of this and then sued the employer for breaching it. The
claimant was being cheated and hence he decided to take over the case. It was found the immediate
washing would have reduced the risk but the defendant didn't do this due to which the case took
into serious way. The disease couldn't be un seen and had to be taken into consideration.
Now the question of law was raised here. It had to be used here very nicely. Lord Salmon in this
case said that the present case seems to be unrealistic and contrary to ordinary common sense to
hold that the negligence which materially increased the risk to the health of the claimant(Caney, S.,
2010.Kim, H. and Sikkink, K., 2010). Lord Salmon suggested seeing the whole case that the
medical evidence says that the man was at greater risk due to exposure to dust. It was clear that the
defendant was at fault and the claimant was right. He has the right to sue the employer completely.
It is a clear case and help has to be given in this case to the claimant.
The company has no right to give bad environmental working conditions because if a person works
for any company then he would need a proper environment to work in. It has to be kept in mind on
a very first basis. If any person is working under a company then he would like to get the standard
conditions and not any other conditions. There are other firms too where that person can work into.
It's very simple if a company wants to make profits but it can only happen of their employees are
happy and getting a good salary as well as good working conditions. Why would a person join any
company if it won't provide them a proper working conditions. It is very much possible that the
person can get better facilities in other company with the same salary too(Kim, H. and Sikkink, K.,
2010).
We can see here that the claimant here underwent bad working conditions due to which he
developed the disease. These conditions have resulted in the bad image of the company which in
result has made the claimant to sue the employer. It is not a good thing and now the defendant has
to take steps to save themselves. The court has also found that the company is in fault and has to be
taken care of. It is a win for the claimant and due to this things will improve for him.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Johnson, K., Scott, J., Rughita, B., Kisielewski, M., Asher, J., Ong, R. and Lawry, L., 2010.
Association of sexual violence and human rights violations with physical and
mental health in territories of the Eastern Democratic Republic of the
Congo. Jama, 304(5), pp.553-562.
Merry, S.E. and Conley, J.M., 2011. Measuring the world: indicators, human rights, and
global governance. Current Anthropology, 52(S3), pp.000-000.
Caney, S., 2010. Climate change, human rights, and moral thresholds.Climate ethics:
Essential readings, pp.163-177.
Caney, S., 2010. Climate change, human rights, and moral thresholds.Climate ethics:
Essential readings, pp.163-177.
Kim, H. and Sikkink, K., 2010. Explaining the deterrence effect of human rights
prosecutions for transitional countries1. International Studies Quarterly,54(4),
pp.939-963.
Dembour, M.B., 2010. What are human rights? Four schools of thought.Human Rights
Quarterly, 32(1), pp.1-20.