LESSON OVERVIEW

In this lesson students learn vocabulary related to the topic of employment law, watch a video about a new law passed in Portugal and share their views on employment regulations around the world.

WARM-UP & VOCABULARY

The lesson begins with an activity in which students share their opinions on a statement: You should work to live, not live to work. Then, they get a list of vocabulary related to the topic of employment law (e.g. sick pay, minimum wage, sabbatical) and match the words and expressions with their definitions. Afterwards, students read some employment rules and regulations from around the world (e.g. regarding parental leave, career break, etc.). Then, they complete the gaps with the vocabulary introduced in the previous exercise. Next, they compare the regulations with the ones from their countries and decide if any of the laws they read about are useful and could be adopted by their country. 

VIDEO & DISCUSSION ON EMPLOYMENT LAW

Before watching a video about the right to rest law passed in Portugal, students predict what the law might be about. Then, they watch the video to see if their predictions were right. While watching the video for the second time, students need to complete some gaps with the information from the video. After that, they share their opinions on the right to rest law. This activity is followed by a multiple choice task in which students learn some more words useful when talking about employment law (e.g. sue for, penalize for, hefty fine). The lesson ends with a task which gives students plenty of opportunities to reflect on rules and regulations for employers and employees. Students come up with ideas on how to improve policies of overtime, annual leave, and similar, both in their company and on a national level. They can do the activity in groups, or simply exchange the ideas with a partner.