
Guide
- Business Advice
Peninsula Group, HR and Health & Safety Experts
(Last updated )
Peninsula Group, HR and Health & Safety Experts
(Last updated )
All businesses across the UK should provide their employees with their legal rights and responsibilities. Such as wages, leave entitlements and, protection from discrimination.
Failure to provide your staff with their entitlements is against the law and could lead to a claim being raised against you. If found guilty, you could be made to pay out heavy financial damages, as well as it being a stain on your business' reputation.
In this guide, we'll discuss what employment law is, what it covers, and the different laws you must follow.
Employment law is legislation that helps to protect relationships between employers and employees. The laws are in place to ensure your workplace is safe and that you're protecting your employee’s rights.
You must adhere to the law and understand your obligations.
Failure to follow employment law could lead to claims being raised against you at a tribunal. This could mean heavy fines and other financial damages being awarded.
Employment laws are a crucial part of running a successful business. These laws and regulations help to ensure your employees are treated fairly.
They are important for making sure a fair process is followed before, during, and after someone has worked for you.
So, as an employer, you must know what employment laws in the UK cover.
Employment law in the UK covers a wide range of issues involved in employment. Understanding which ones can go a long way to ensuring your company acts on the right side of the law.
Below are some common areas covered:
There are many types of employment legislation in place to protect your staff. Employment laws are vital, you must understand them.
Some of the legislation you'll use daily, such as working hours. But some employment laws will only be used occasionally, such as ones that deal directly with issues relating to maternity leave.
In essence, the legislation is in place to ensure employment contracts are carried out legally. As well as protecting employees from unfair dismissal or having to file a discrimination claim.
There are other employment laws that are important to both employers and employees. You must become familiar with the following:
As an employer, you have a duty of care to provide your staff with a safe workplace. So you must understand how to keep your employee safe.
There are three basic health & safety employment rights for all your employees.
Depending on the nature of your business, employers may have other health & safety requirements. Such as working with hazardous substances or manual handling.
However, all your employees have rights to health & safety protection. You must be aware of them and understand their importance:
Within a company, there may be different types of staff. For example, full-time and part-time employees, or workers.
As an employer, you need to understand the different rights and laws of each member of staff. An employee signs an employment contract before starting work, with a worker having a contract for their service.
Let's discuss the different rights each type of worker has.
An employee has a set of rights that you must stick to, failure to do so is against employment law. These include:
Each worker has their rights set out by clear employment law. They are slightly different from the rights of an employee, but employers must understand them. These include:
As an employer, you must be aware of the different employment laws in the UK. They outline the basic requirements that you must provide to all your staff, for example, wages and leave entitlements.
Failure to provide your staff with your legal obligations is against employment law and claims being made against you.
Peninsula offers employment services and 24/7 HR advice to tackle any employment law issue. We take care of everything when you work with our employment law experts. Want to find out more? Contact us on 0800 051 3630 and book a free consultation with one of our HR consultants.
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