ABSTRACT

Project managers worldwide are often faced with many challenges and legal disputes, typically concerning contracts between companies. This chapter concentrates on legal issues that might face a project manager involved in the employment of people at home or overseas. Legal issues surrounding recruitment and the employment of staff can be particularly daunting for a non-people manager, especially if that manager is operating in a global environment, where projects can touch or be carried out in different territories or across different legal jurisdictions. Discrimination in employment can take many forms. These might be on the grounds of sex/gender and gender identity, age, religion or belief, marital status, sexual orientation and disability. These are sometimes called protected characteristics because for social policy reasons in many countries discrimination on any of these grounds is outlawed. Thus potential and actual employees are protected from discrimination in employment situations on each or any combination of these grounds.