Introduction

Answer 1:

The objective of employment regulations is to protect the workers from any physical challenge at the workplace that may be workplace bullying, workplace discrimination and safety issues. The employment regulations aim to make a standard in the industry related to the working hours, salary, and climate in the workplace that are important for the employees to develop careers effectively (Collins, 2017). According to this statutory, employers may make employee-friendly policies only.

Role of Court and Tribunal Systems

Aside from the growth of legislation, individuals must also follow suit. Courts and tribunals exist for this reason. Courts and tribunals play a role. When a matter comes before the court and tribunals having employment law issues, the judges sitting hear the facts and, based on the law, provide justice to the victims (Honeyball, 2011). Tribunals and courts provide justice to employees regarding employment law-related aspects, which develops dread in other parties involved, therefore playing an effective role in settling the cases related to employment cases.

Answer 2

Recruiting and selection are developed legally in every business. It implies an employer must select fair approaches while doing such tasks. An employer needs to guarantee that when hiring an employee, religion, sex, cast, appearance and other characteristics are not considered (Goldstein et al., 2017). As per the help of the Equality Act 2010, employer replaces the possibilities of discrimination in employment contracts (Sewell, 2012). This statute specifies several qualities that prohibit employment discrimination.

Development of an Employment Contract

This is a written document that is developed after covering all terms and conditions related to employment after the selection of an employee. It is developed within 2 months after the joining of a person. It includes two types of terms that are implicit and explicit. Both parties, employee and employer, are bound by implicit conditions that are presented in a written manner (Brodie, 2021). Expressed conditions are explicitly specified in an employment contract. In a situation of disagreement, the courts treat an employment contract as evidence, thus it must be properly drafted and developed.

Answer 3

Changes in Employment Contract

Regarding changes in the contract of employment, it can be stated that an employer needs to discuss every possibility with the employees. For this employer needs to use a collective consultation method that will help to increase communication with the employee and reach effective ways to implement the expected changes in the contract.

Requirements of Redundancy Law

Redundancy occurs when an employee’s position is no longer needed by their company and an employer uses pressure to quit. Redundancy management is a vital part of an employee’s employment contract since it directly affects the employment of an employee (van Kempen and Patmore, 2008). An employer must handle it legally. Like contract modifications, redundancies must be addressed with workers first. An employer may address it with staff as follows: –

If numerous workers are anticipated to be laid off, a business might opt to notify them collectively. Its duration depends on the number of affected personnel. Individual consultation is another way of communication that is used by employers when there are only 20 workers.

Law for Transfer of Business

For the transfer of the business, an employer must need to follow the provisions of “Transfer of Undertakings Regulations 2006” (Incomes Data Services, 2011), there are two tasks, which are below explained:

Consultancy: This is an important step that must be followed by an employer to inform employees about the process of business transfers and its impact on the performance of their productivity. During such discussion, employers must explain the reason for business transfers and proposed changes along with other transfer related elements.

Information related to Employee Liability: The current employer must furnish the new owner of the firm with all relevant personnel information.

Answer 4

Statutory Rights of employees

Under statutory law, an employee has several rights that are explained below:

Pay-related Rights: According to “Equality Act 2010”, pay disparities at the workplace is not allowed to the employer for a similar job in the same working environment (Sewell, 2012).

Leaves: A full-time employee of an organization is entitled to get 5.6 weeks in a year. But it is the discretion of the employer to omit or include bank holidays in employee annual leaves.

Working Hours: According to “Working Time Regulations 1998”, a full-time employee needs to perform 48 hours a week (Williams and Phillips, 2000). An employer cannot ask for additional time from employees without compensating them.

Equal Pay Law

The Equality Act 2010 requires equitable working conditions for all employees regardless of gender (Sewell, 2012). The legislation has three requirements: –

Similar work role: Act’s equality obligations only apply when two workers’ job is comparable.

Same Category Work type: In many firms, employers’ categories or rate employees’ performance based on analytical job assessment. The work of two or more workers must be in the same category or rated similarly for this statute to apply.

Equal-value work: If the employer has not issued a rating, the act legislation will apply if the job of two workers is of equal worth.

Employment Rights related to Family-Friendly

An employer, as the name indicates, also gives these privileges. Employers are required by law to give extra family-friendly rights to their workers, such as maternity and paternity leave. An employee who is pregnant is entitled to two types of maternity leave: regular and extra. Both of these leaves are authorised for 26 weeks, but not more than 52 weeks overall. The employer must pay for 39 weeks of maternity leave, not 52 weeks.

Answer 5

Major Requirements of Health and Safety Law

The legislation was intended to keep workers safe and healthy while working. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 protects employees against workplace harassment, stress and bullying (HSE, 2022). Followings are the duties of an employer towards the employees to provide:

A safe workplace,

A safe work system,

Safe and suitable machinery and equipment are all obligations of an employer under this legislation.

Employees are responsible for their health and safety throughout work hours.

Implied Duties

These duties are not explicitly stated in the employment contract of a person but these are still relevant for the employees. Because an employment contract cannot cover everything, implicit obligations have evolved. Both employers and employees have such responsibility. The absence of a clause in an employment contract does not negate its existence. In addition to their declared obligation, both parties, employee and employer, must execute such tasks. In the absence of an explicit obligation, these responsibilities protect victims and are subject to the same penalties as express duties.

Law related to Freedom Of Association

According to Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, an employee may join an association and no employer can put pressure on him or her to stop from such joining. Rights that have been discussed under this article is known as “Freedom of Association” (Equality Human Rights Commission, 2021). As per the principles of this article, the following are important laws:

An employee can join trade unions as per his or her will.

But such rights cannot be used against the values of society.

Such right is not available to the police department, civil services members and armed forces.

Answer 6:

Requirements of unfair dismissal law

Unfair dismissal occurs when it occurs without sufficient and fair reasons. The Employment Rights Act of 1996 prohibits unjust dismissal (legislation.gov.uk, 2022). Now the question is to identify the unjust circumstances. This legislation mentions scenarios that will not be handled unfairly. That an employer may fire an employee for such reasons. These are the grounds:

Redundancy: this situation is applicable when an employer does not find a solution after exhausting all possibilities, he/she may fire an employee whose office is no longer needed.

Behaviour: If the workplace engagement of an employee is beyond the conduct that is prohibited by employment law and falls under the category of misconduct, the employer may fire the employee (legislation.gov.uk, 2022).

Capability: The lack of the employees’ ability to perform a job is effective for an employer to remove an employee from work.

Statutory Ban: As per “Employment Rights Act 1996” specifies conditions in which an employer may not get the services of an employee. In such cases, an employer may remove an employee legitimately (legislation.gov.uk, 2022).

Other Reasons: Aside from the foregoing instances, an employer may fire an employee for any cause, but the rationale must be fair.

Rights of employees

Every employee in an organization has a right to show disagreement with a decision made by the employer. His trade union may also accompany him. Also, an employee has no right to be accompanied by an attorney unless the issue is so severe that it threatens the employee’s future. Regarding this, advisory documents created by the Advisory (ACAS) are a legal backing that describes grievance procedures and disciplinary actions available to the employee against the employer (Acas, 2022). According to this code, the followings are the rights of employers.

• An employee must make a legitimate request to exercise subjective rights.
• An employee may choose their advocates.
• If the advocates of the employee are not available, the employer should postpone the process of hearing (Acas, 2022).

References

Acas. (2022). Making working life better for everyone in Britain. Retrieved from https://www.acas.org.uk/

Brodie, D. (2021). The Future of the Employment Contract. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Collins, E. (2017). Employment Law Review. Law Business Research Ltd.

Equality Human Rights Commission. (2021). Article 11: Freedom of assembly and association. Retrieved from https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/human-rights-act/article-11-freedom-assembly-and-association

Goldstein et al. (2017). The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of the Psychology of Recruitment, Selection and Employee Retention. John Wiley & Sons.

Honeyball, S. (2011). Great Debates in Employment Law. Macmillan International Higher Education.

HSE. (2022). Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. Retrieved from https://www.hse.gov.uk/legislation/hswa.htm

Incomes Data Services (2011).Transfer of Undertakings. Sweet & Maxwell.

legislation.gov.uk (2022). Employment Rights Act 1996. Retrieved from https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/18/contents

Sewell, H. (2012). The Equality Act 2010 in Mental Health: A Guide to Implementation and Issues for Practice. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

van Kempen, M. and Patmore, L. (2008). Redundancy Law in Europe. Kluwer Law International B.V.

Williams, A. and Phillips, A. (2000). Family Working Rights: A Practical Guide. Stationery Office.