Your rights - CareerStructure.com
Tried and tested laws are in place protecting both current employees and those looking for a new job. You are entitled to fair treatment in a huge number of circumstances including when being selected for a job, considered for promotion at work, or looking for opportunities for training and development.
Make sure you understand your basic rights and don't be afraid to seek expert advice should a problem arise.
Discrimination laws
Laws outlawing the discrimination of employees or candidates for jobs on the basis of their age are the latest in a series of laws protecting individuals against discrimination on the grounds of gender, sexual orientation, religion and race.
The latest laws:
- ban age discrimination in recruitment, promotion and training
- ban unjustified retirement ages of below 65
- remove the current age limit for unfair dismissal and redundancy rights.
Specific issues such as health checks, assumptions about physical strength, and access to insurance benefits should now be applied equally to all employees regardless of age.
The age laws join existing laws that protect employees from discrimination that holds back career progression, training opportunities and pay.
If you are looking for a new job and you think a potential employer has discriminated against you, it is worth revisiting the job description and asking them for feedback as to why you were not selected. You may also ask to see the results of any aptitude or personality tests that you may have taken.
Find out more:
The Equal Opportunities Commission (
www.eoc.org.uk) carries information on sexual discrimination and equal pay legislation.
The Commission for Racial Equality (
www.cre.gov.uk) has information on race discrimination legislation including case studies for employees and employers.
Employment contracts
Your employer is required to provide you with a written contract when you start a new job containing a variety of rights and obligations that will govern your relationship. However, you must assume that minimum standards of behaviour are expected even if they are not spelt out in a contract. For example, if either party does something in bad faith (e.g. if an employee steals confidential information or an employer changes hours of work without getting your consent) the other side can claim compensation for breach of contract.
New laws on contracts for fixed-term employees are likely to have an impact on the construction sector. Employers now have to consider requests from staff, who have been employed on successive fixed-term contracts for four years, to be moved on to a permanent contract. This will apply to construction workers engaged on a series of short contracts on a large project.
Find out more from the Department of Trade and Industry (
www.dti.gov.uk/employment)
Pay at work
Salaries for jobs with broadly similar titles and job specifications can vary greatly across industry sectors and regions but your salary should not be affected by your gender, ethnic origin, age and sexuality.
Equal pay laws say that people should be paid the same either:
- for work which is the same, or of a broadly similar nature
- for work rated as equal value under a job evaluation scheme
The minimum wage was introduced by the Government in 1999 to ensure that workers aged 18 and above receive a fair standard of pay, wherever they work. These rates are set to increase. The rates of pay and age brackets concerned change regularly. More information from HM Revenue and Customs (
www.hmrc.gov.uk/nmw/)
Parental leave
Parental leave allows working fathers and mothers to take 13 weeks' leave from work for each child sometime before their fifth birthday. Parents of children with disabilities are entitled to take 18 weeks' leave. The legislation is aimed at giving parents the time to care for young children, make arrangements for their welfare or simply to spend quality time with an infant. This leave is separate to maternity and paternity leave.
All employees have the right to take a reasonable period off work to deal with an emergency problem involving a dependent such as a child, partner or parent. There is no set time allowed for this, although guidelines are available from the Department for Trade and Industry (
www.dti.gov.uk).
Working hours
The Working Time Regulations prevent employers from overworking their employees and enforce the right to basic entitlements such as time off and holiday pay. The average working week should not exceed 48 hours, although this is an average, not a limit on each week. You also have the right to a 20-minute break in a six-hour working day, a rest period of 11 hours in every 24 hours, a guaranteed rest of 24 hours once in every seven days, and four weeks' paid leave (pro rata for part-timers).
You can waive your rights if you wish, but you must do so in writing and you cannot be forced to do this.
The working hours laws have widespread implications. One of the latest to affect employees in the construction industry who work on short-term contracts, is a European ruling that employers can no longer 'roll-up' holiday pay. Employers will now have to pay holiday pay at the time their workers actually take their holidays rather than include an amount for holiday pay in the hourly rate of pay. As a result employers may need to renegotiate contracts.
More information from the Department of Trade and Industry (
www.dti.gov.uk/employment/employment-legislation/working-time-regs/index.html)
Unfair dismissal
All employees have the right not to be unfairly dismissed. A dismissal is classed as "automatically unfair" regardless of the reasonableness of an employer's actions if an employee is exercising specific rights to do with:
- pregnancy- including all reasons relating to maternity
- family leave - such as parental leave or paternity leave
- representation - such as trade union membership
- discrimination including protection against discrimination on the grounds of age, sex, belief
- pay and working hours - including the Working Time Regulations.
Sick pay entitlement
Nobody likes to think of having to take any long-term time off work due to illness. However, when you are job seeking, it's worth considering if your future employer will pay you the Government minimum, or if they run a more generous occupational sick pay scheme. Laws designed to improve the rights of people with disabilities are also affecting the way that employers deal with staff that have to take long periods off work when they are sick.
Find out more from the Department for Work and Pensions (
www.dwp.gov.uk).
CareerStructure.com can only offer general guidance. For specific advice contact a solicitor or one of the expert bodies such as the government-run employment advice service Acas (
www.acas.org.uk).
