I am an Employer in the UK. What Are Five Key Things I Should Know About Employment Law?

Employment law can be a minefield for many employers because it covers a vast area and frequently changes. However, as an employer, you will want to abide by your legal obligations. Failure to do so can open your business up to employment tribunal claims, which may result in severe financial penalties. This article will explain five key points all employers should know about employment law in the UK. 

Health and Safety at Work and Employment Law

As an employer, you are under a legal duty to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of your staff at work. For example, you should provide:

• clean drinking water;
• toilet and washing facilities;
• a ventilated work environment;
• a well-lit work site; and
• equipment that is safe and well-maintained. 

You are also legally required to have a health and safety policy in place for your workplace if you employ five or more staff. This is a written statement detailing your health and safety policies . You should carry out a workplace health and safety risk assessment to determine what your workplace risks are, which will help you understand what to place in your policy. Whilst you are not required to have a health and safety policy in place if you have less than five employees, it is good practice to do so nonetheless. 

Notably, conducting health and safety checks and drafting policy is difficult if you do not have any relevant experience. Thus, many businesses will hire health and safety consultants and a legal team to arrive at a tailored solution. 

The National Minimum Wage and Employment Law

You are legally required to pay your staff a minimum wage, as calculated on an hourly basis. The National Minimum Wage changes annually from April, so be aware of any updates and wage increases. As an employer, it is your legal duty to understand these updates and pay your staff accordingly. Importantly, it is no defence to say you were unaware that the national minimum wage had increased. 

The current National Minimum Wage rates are set out in the following table:

(Note, these figures differ if you employ staff in London).

Not all benefits your employees receive count towards their minimum wage. For instance, the following are examples of benefits that may not be included when calculating your employees’ wage:

• service charges;
• tips;
• gratuities; and 
• cover charges.

Hours of Work and Holiday Entitlement

Whilst you may require your staff to work certain hours and times based on the reasonable demands of your business, you must still comply with certain rules. For example, as a general rule, you cannot require your staff to work more than 48 hours per week. If your employee works another job, hours worked in the other job may contribute to this maximum limit. 

In practice, you can circumvent this requirement by adding a provision in the employment contract. This provision states that the employee agrees to opt out of the 48-hour weekly limit. Separately, while your staff are at work, you must ensure you provide them with their legal entitlement to rest breaks. For every six hours of work, they are entitled to at least one 30-minute break. 

Finally, your staff are also legally entitled to paid holiday leave each year, which is currently a minimum of 5.6 weeks per year. You should apply this equally to your part-time workers but on a pro-rata basis. There are exceptions to this rule. For instance, workers on zero-hours contracts are not necessarily entitled to holidays. 

Unlawful Discrimination in Employment Law 

As an employer, you must be aware that it is illegal to unlawfully discriminate against your employees. Unlawful discrimination means any discrimination along certain protected characteristics, including:

• race;
• age;
• disability;
• sex;
• religion;
• sexual orientation;
• pregnancy and maternity;
• gender reassignment; and
• marriage and civil partnership.

Likewise, contractors and freelancers are also entitled to similar protections from discrimination. 

Direct vs Indirect Discrimination in Employment Law

The law distinguishes between two principal forms of unlawful discrimination:

1. direct discrimination; and 
2. indirect discrimination. 

Direct discrimination is where you treat one worker differently from another on the basis of a protected characteristic. For instance, if you refused to promote an employee because they were Muslim, this would be direct discrimination. 

Indirect discrimination is when you apply a universal policy that unfairly impacts someone because they possess a protected characteristic. For example, say you only promoted individuals that voluntarily worked on Saturdays. As a result, you do not promote a Jewish employee that does not work on Saturdays for religious reasons. Though you did not intend for this policy to discriminate, it nonetheless had a discriminatory effect. 

Maternity Leave and Pay in Employment Law 

If an employee becomes pregnant, they gain additional legal rights under maternity leave and pay laws.

Pregnant employees are entitled to 52 weeks of Statutory Maternity Leave, divided into 26 initial weeks of Ordinary Maternity Leave followed by 26 weeks of Additional Maternity Leave. Even if your staff do not wish to take their maternity leave, they are legally obligated to take it two weeks immediately following the birth of their baby. If your business includes factory work, they are entitled to four weeks in total. You should note that your staff retain their employees’ rights during their maternity leave.

When your employees start their maternity leave, their entitlement to Statutory Maternity Pay also commences. Not all your workers will qualify for this but will do where they:

• earn a minimum average of £120 per week;
• give you a minimum of 28 days’ notice of their maternity leave;
• prove to you that they are pregnant; and 
• have been working for you for a minimum of 26 weeks continuously before and including the 15th week before their baby is expected to be born.
  

Finally, you must ensure that your employees returning from maternity leave resume a similar position as the one you left. This means you cannot demote them or offer them a lower-paying position than the one they left. 

Separately, fathers and certain same-sex partners to surrogate mothers have similar rights to take parental leave — typically up to two consecutive weeks during the calendar year. 

Key Takeaways

You must be aware of and understand employment law as it details your obligations as an employer. For example, you must not unlawfully discriminate against others in your employment. You must also pay your staff the National Minimum Wage and ensure they have the legal rest breaks they are entitled to. If you do not abide by your obligations under employment law, your business may face serious repercussions. In the worst case, you may have to defend a claim in front of an employment tribunal. If you lose, you will likely have to pay a civil penalty. 

If you need help understanding key points about employment laws in the UK, our experienced employment lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents for a low monthly fee. So call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.