Final answer:
Employers are required to follow labor standards legislated by the jurisdiction where their employees work, regardless of other circumstances like multinational status or weather. Standards include setting wages, work hours, and ensuring workplace safety among others. Different terms cannot be set merely based on the employee's agreement; the law must permit it.
Step-by-step explanation:
Employers must follow labor standards legislated by the jurisdiction in which their employees work. These standards include various measures to ensure fair and humane working conditions such as setting minimum hourly wages, setting maximum hours of work, prohibiting child labor, and regulating health and safety conditions in the workplace. Employers are also responsible for preventing discrimination, providing family leave, giving advance notice of layoffs, covering workers with unemployment insurance, and abiding by laws regarding the employment of immigrant workers.
Regardless of whether an employer is a multinational corporation or a government entity, these labor standards must be adhered to unless otherwise specified by law. It is not sufficient for an employee to simply agree to different terms, especially if these terms undermine mandatory labor standards. Moreover, unfavorable weather conditions do not void the responsibility of employers to comply with labor regulations.
In the context of global labor markets, labor standards and working conditions are generally lower in low-income countries than in wealthier nations like the United States due to varying economic pressures, less stringent labor laws, and differences in enforcement. This phenomenon can lead to what is sometimes known as a 'race to the bottom,' where countries compete to attract business investment at the cost of weakened labor standards.