In any organization, employment relations are conserved and administrated under the Human Resource Department. Besides maintaining employment relationships, the HR Management must secure employments rights of individual workers in an organization. Firm’s employees are required to work towards fulfilling the employer’s expectations while employers have an ethical and legal responsibility to secure and respect the rights of their employees. It is this relationship that gave rise to the employment rights act. The act is meant to give directions and secure workers’ rights in workplaces. Employment Rights Act is a piece of legislation that formally organizes the existing laws on individual employee rights. The Employment Rights Act organizes and makes some changes in the existing employee rights to make it clear and more accurate (U.K government, 2019). Due to the developing business world, the Employment Rights Acts were amended, which defend and protect employees through various stated rights and laws which were required to be followed by employers and companies.
The Employment Rights Act 1996 is directly related to the statutory law. This act was enacted on the 22nd of August 1996 and consisted of laws that were formerly found in the Employment Protection Act 1978, Wages Act, and Equal Pay. The Employment Rights Act deals with the employment relationship and activities as well as the overview of the employment contract. The Employment Rights have been altered over the years by sensitive judgment with the advanced anti-discrimination law. This alteration has been made possible by the court through its inherent powers to acquire new rules or amend the old ones. Employment laws were formulated and amended to favor both the employees and employers at some point. According to the Employment Rights Act, an employee is a person who is in agreement to perform a particular task under the control and conditions of the employer.
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Before any individual can actively begin working, they must sign an employment contract between them and their employers. The employment contract is an agreement between employers and their employees upon various subjects such as the working time, payment, and benefits. Moreover, it lays out a foundation of employees’ rights regarding their rights in the workplace. The Employment contract or the statement of particulars can act as evidence in court when a breach of rights against the employer arises. This agreement must be in writing either as a contract or a short statement of particulars (U.K government, 2019). The employee should then receive it within eight weeks before the start of the employment. During this period, the employer can negotiate about the salary, working hours, starting the day, availability of employment terms, and condition. Also, membership of a trade union is negotiated for collective bargaining. The employee then gives out private and confidential data that must be kept protected by the employer to ensure the security of the employee.
However, an employee or employer can terminate the contract of employment. The Employment Rights Acts prefer a termination notice which can be given weekly or monthly. The notice depends on the scope of the work and the circumstance. Under section 86 and 87 of the Act, a one week notice has to be given to the employee before their dismissal if they have worked for not less than a month (Hyland, 2018). Likewise, for those who have worked with the company for more than two years should be given not less than two weeks' notice. The notice periods vary in employees as some receive a higher notice period than others. This follows the employment contracts and the collective agreement established by the workplace union. However, an employee can be issued the pay in lieu of notice if it is stated in the employee contract of employment.
The dismissal of an employee should have a reasonable and valid ground. However, wrongful termination often happens in common law countries. Among other rights, this is considered to be important as other complaints of breached rights will be made after an employee is dismissed. After dismissal, an employee may file a claim that reasonable notice was not given to him (Collins, 2018). Dismissal of employees is considered unfair when health and safety are related to the dismissal. Also, dismissal related to a request for flexible working hours is considered unfair. In this case, the employee can recover his right to work with proper court jurisdiction.
On the other hand, dismissal of employees can be termed as fair in various circumstances, which relates to the employee conduct or qualifications and capabilities of the work the employee was hired for. Moreover, fair dismissal can be done when an employee was redundant, or the employee cannot continue working in his position without infringement of duty (Collins, 2018). Nonetheless, most companies dismiss their employees for mainly two reasons. These reasons are because the employee is no longer needed by the employer or difficulties in paying the employee due to bad times. This can be supported by section 98 of the Act, where the employer has the right to dismiss an employee for solid reasons. Also, section 95 deals with the constructive dismissal of employees.
Employees have the right to be paid equally with the least wage following the statutory National Minimum Wage. The NMW provides the minimum rates of payment with every hour the employee works for the employer. The right to the same pay, benefits, and conditions of employment as someone of the opposite sex where you are both doing the same or similar work is given in the Equal Pay Act. The wages and salary an employee is to receive in his employment are supposed to be clearly stated in the written statement of particular. Redundancy payments are given to employees if they are dismissed when their work becomes obsolete (Hugh, 2012). This compensation is given to employees who have worked for a certain period to become established employees and have a good working relationship with the employer (Hyland, 2018). Section 155 of the Act deals with the qualifications of the period to receive redundancy payments, which is two years (U.K government, 2019). Even so, employees who have reached the retirement age are not entitled to redundancy payments (Hyland, 2018). However, an employer may decide to escape redundancy payments by making dismissal of qualifications and misconduct. The issues of salaries and proper deductions are extracted from the Wages Act.
Under the Employment Rights Act, the employee is not allowed to disclose the company's confidential and private information to the public or a third party. However, it goes ahead and states that an employee is given the right to report any criminal offenses by the company, health and safety violations, environmental damages, failure to stand by the legal obligations, and injustice. In such cases, the employee has the right to be protected against detriments suffered due to the disclosure of the company's information, which is a benefit to the public (U.K government, 2019). Nonetheless, the employee is warned in disclosing confidential and private information in the exception of the scenarios mentioned above.
Although only 39 weeks are payable, maternity leave can go for one year (52 weeks) regardless of the length of service with the employer. Fathers are given paternal leave of one or two consecutive weeks, which are paid for, which can be given to both biological and adoptive parents. Parents have a right to be granted parental leave, which often is unpaid to take care of his child and organize for the child's welfare. More time is spent with the children as this leave provides a balance between work and family commitments. Employees can take unpaid leave in case of an emergency relating to someone who depends on them. A penalty cannot be given to the employees for the emergency leave if his reasons are genuine.
In conclusion, the Employment Right Act is an Act of Parliament where the rights of employees are stated, and if violated by their employers, a claim might be filed in a court. The laws protect only employers who work under an employment contract under the Employment Rights Acts. However, vulnerable employees are exempted from the laws since they work under their terms and control. In the business world today, employees are subjected to abuse in their respective workplaces; thus, the Employment Rights Act is essential regarding employment relationships. Therefore, this Act was designed to defend and secure the employees' rights during their employment.
References
Collins P. (2018). The inadequate human rights in unfair dismissal law. Industrial Law Journal, 47 (4), 504-530. https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwx026
Hugh C. (2012). Compensation for dismissal. Industrial Law Journal, 41 (2), 208–227. https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dws011
Hyland P. (2018). Redundancy payments. Law Brief Publishing . http://www.lawbriefpublishing.com/2018/11/redundancy-payments-law-guide/
U.K government. (2019). Employment Rights Act 1996 . http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/18/contents.
