Employment Law

Task 1

Critical Understanding of UK Employment Law

Employment law addresses the rights and duties of employee and employer of an organization. Employment law of UK helps in maintaining strong relationship between employer and employee. Implementation of employment law helps in improving productivity and saving cost and stress of employment hearing claims. There are some basic labor laws of UK which are described as under...

Employment contract

As per the employment law of UK, employer needs to follow the legal system of the country and they should develop employment agreement between employee and employer. As per the Employment Rights Act of 1996, employment agreement needs to cover basic information about employee and employees. Information include date of joining, job title and duties, amount of pay, place of employment, working hours, holidays, pension entitlements, grievance process, termination information and probationary period, etc. Employment contract helps in maintaining legal and professional association among employee and employer.

Wage and hour

According to the National Minimum Wage Act 1998, every organization needs to provide specific amount of wage for working hours and minimum standard of wage has been decided by UK government. As per this act, minimum wage rate can fluctuate as per the age group. According to the UK government, minimum wage rate for employee over 21 years is £6.19/hour. As per the law, employees can refuse to do work more than 48 hours in a single week. It helps in deciding working hours and wages for each and every employee in the organization.

Holiday Entitlement

It is also one of the important sections of employment law and it includes information about total number of holidays which are offered by organization to workers in a year. As per the Working time Regulation of 1998, employee in UK is legally entitled to 5.6 weeks paid holiday time in a single year.

Discrimination Laws

As per the international employment law discrimination and harassment at workplace is completely restricted at the workplace. Equality Act 2010 is one of the primary legislations for prohibiting discrimination and annoyance at workplace in UK. It includes different types of discrimination such as age, disability, gender, marriage, pregnancy and maternity, race and ethnicity, etc. Along with this, employer of an organization is also restricted to discriminate employees on the basis of religion, belief, sexual orientation, part-time job, fixed work term and trade union membership activities. Equality Act helps in maintaining discrimination free environment at the workplace which helps in developing strong association between different employees.

As per the employment law, trade unions needs to apply these laws at the time of hiring, employment, training, promotion, compensation and termination processes. It helps in prohibiting direct and indirect discrimination at the workplace. Employment law of UK also includes some other legislation such as Equal Pay Act 1970, Race Relations Act 1976 and Disability Discrimination Act of 1995. All these regulations help in maintaining discrimination free environment at workplace.

Maternity and Paternity Leave

According o the labor law, employees of an organization are entitled to avail twenty Six weeks leave as Ordinary Maternity Leave. In this duration, they can get maternity allowance statutory Maternity Pay. As per this law, some employees can take longer period leave as additional maternity leave. As per the law, employer has no right to dismiss employees due to pregnancy. After completing this leave employee are entitled to resume their normal job in same terms and conditions. Therefore, it is one of the important sections of employment law which increases flexibility for female employees during her pregnancy period.

Terminations

Employment law also includes termination contract and this contract will comprise all information about the termination date of employment and mutual understanding. Further, it also comprises date about death and retirement of worker, dismissal of employees due to redundancy, etc. Trade unions can also include some basic standards of work and if these requirements are not completed by workers then company can terminate that employee without any kind of notice. But, on the other hand, any employee who want to discontinue their job then he/she needs to provide a notice before leaving the job.

Redundancies

UK redundancies are implemented by employer only when a company cannot afford to keep an employee. In this situation employer needs to terminate employee from work. As per the law, in case of redundancy, employer needs to send a statement which comprises reason of termination or unemployment. According to the law employer needs to consult with employees 30 days before the dismissal (Employment Law and the UK’s EU Referendum, 2015).

Task 2

Analyses of the way in which EU membership impacts on the development of employment law and related social policy in the UK

European Union (EU) includes 28 members’ states and UK is also one of the important countries of EU. Each member of EU needs to follow the common laws and regulations. Membership with EU helps in maintaining effective coordination between different countries about employment. Earlier, Most of the countries are facing the very serious problems towards unemployment. But, for resolving this problem EU has developed some common rules and regulations for managing employment. These laws help in improving employment rate in whole country. There are some UK employment laws that are affected by EU; these laws are related to equality, family Friendly Laws, typical working, and transfer of undertaking, collective consultation and working time.

EU introduces laws for maintaining anti-discrimination at workplace. It has positive impact on Employment law of UK. In this aspect European law underpinned discrimination laws regarding sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, belief, culture and religion and age, etc. Earlier, UK employment law has not introduced any kind of regulations about the maternity. But, European Law includes law about maternity pay and leave, paternal leave and time off for domestic emergencies. As per the EU law all members of European Union needs to implement this regulation in their employment law. So, UK employment law also include this regulation in their rules and regulation. EU has established a rule that every organization needs to develop an employment contract for part-time, Fixed and agency working. So, EU membership has also affected the working agreement conditions of UK employment law. After being member of EU, working time regulations of UK has also affected. All these impacts have positive impact on employment law which will be positive for employer as well as employee of the organization. All these rules and regulations helps in improving relationship between employee and employer which leads increment in the total rate of employment.

There are some similarity between employment law of EU and UK which does not have any impact on employment regulations. Along with this, there are some European laws which are similar with UK rules and regulations. These include dismissal, Whistle blowing, minimum wages and industrial relations, etc. Overall EU members affect employment law of UK in positive as well as negative manner which can affect different organizations of UK also.

Task 3

Evaluation of the rules and principles that govern the contract between employer and employee

Contract between employee and employer is known as employment contract. Such types of agreements set out employment condition, rights and responsibilities and duties of employees towards the organization. There are some basic rules and principles of employment contracts which are also called employment terms. All these terms are described as under...

• Employer and employee must have to stick to the contract until the end which means they have to follow all rules and regulations until the terms are changed.
• Employment contract must be in written format including different information about employee and employer. This statement needs to comprise all information about name of employee and employer, date of employment, location, payment and salary with working hours and job description. It is helpful for maintaining clear and professional relationship between employee and employer of the organization.
• Rules of employment contract include that both employer and employee must be mutually agreed on the similar statement.
• In the employment contract there are some conditions which have not discussed between employer and employee but these terms can be covered as implied terms. For example, employer needs to provide safe and secure working environment to employee, etc.
• Along with this, there are some terms which have already mentioned in the written document and these terms are known as expressed terms.
• Employment contract also includes information about grounds of termination during job.
• Organization can hire third party or person to make a valid contract between employee and employer.

All these rules and principles help in developing a valid and legal agreement between employee and employer. Along with this, it allows for a high level of transparency regarding detail of the employment. Employee and employer can also develop contract about desires a certain wage rates. Along with this, it is also beneficial for future if any kinds of disputes between employee and employer in future. Overall employment contract helps in maintaining positive relationship between employee and employer of an organization. But, on the other hand contract between employee and employer is associated with some disadvantages also which can harm the relationship of employee and employer. Employment agreement can limit and bound the flexibility of employer and employee. In some cases, employment contract bound employees for not to change employment for certain time period. This condition can de-motivate employees because they can’t switch the job before completing specific time period. In contrast, it is beneficial for employer and employee as well for maintaining strong relationship with each other. Therefore, all above discussed rules and principles helps in government legal contract or agreement between employee and employer of an organization.

Conclusion

The current research report has concluded that government of UK has introduced employment law for maintaining legal agreement between employee and employer of an organization. It is beneficial for maintaining strong relationship between employees and employer. Employment law includes some basic rules and regulations about employment contract, wages and working hours, holiday entitlement, discrimination laws, maternity and paternity leave, terminations and redundancies. As per this law employer needs to assure about the inclusion of all required information in employment contract. Along with this, research has also found that contract between employee and employer is known as employment contract. This contract needs to comprise all information about name of employee and employer, date of employment, location, payment and salary with working hours and job description. Report has also described that EU membership has positive impacts on employment law of UK by which government of the UK can make favourable changes in different rules and regulations for whole country (Employment Law in the United Kingdom, 2013).

References

• Blum, A. B., 2007. Contracts: Examples & Explanations. Aspen Publishers Online.
• Edwards, S. J., Edwards, L. L. and Wells, K. P., 2008. Tort Law for Legal Assistants. Cengage Learning publication.
• Gillies, P., 2004. Business Law. Federation Press.
• Goldman, A., 2013. Business law: Principles and Practices. Cengage.
• Holland, A. J. and Burnett, S., 2014. Employment Law Legal Practice Course Guide Series.
• Jefferson, M., 2008. Trade Union Law and Collective Employment Rights (2nd edition)", International Journal of Law and Management.

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