What legislation covers the employment relationship?

Employment legislation covers the different statutes or acts that set out the legal entitlements employees have to certain conduct, benefits and rights from their employer or their employment. Anyone working in HR will be trained in employment legislation and how it relates to all aspects of work. It is part of what we refer to as civil rather than criminal law.

Criminal law covers issues between the state and a wrong doer whereas civil law deals with issues between two parties and in this case it is between the employer and the employee.

The employment relationship is governed by a variety of different statutes and acts that are regarded as employment law.

Employment law gets updated every year from minor to major changes.  If you retain the services of a solicitor, then they will be able to keep you informed of any changes and how they effect you.  If you don’t have a solicitor then the ACAS website has an employment law update with a timetable of the changes that are due to come into effect.  

The table below shows the different stages of an employee life cycle and the laws that apply during these stages.

Equality Act 2010

One of the most significant pieces of legislation to govern the employment relationship is the Equality Act 2010.  In summary the Act sets out nine protected characteristics that it is illegal to discriminate on.  It is illegal to discriminate on the following grounds:

1. Sex
2. Religion or belief
3. Pregnancy and maternity
4. Race
5. Sexual orientation
6. Marriage and civil partnership
7. Gender reassignment
8. Disability
9. Age.

Employment Rights Act 1996

This is the Act that governs the majority of the employment relationship, including but not limited to entitlements around:

1. Contracts of employment
2. Pay
3. Dismissal and Grievance
4. Time off
5. Pensions
6. Study and Training
7. Maternity, Paternity, flexible working
8. Termination of employment.

Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSWA)

This is the main piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety. The HSWA can sometimes seem daunting not least because if you are in breach of Health and Safety legislation you can find yourself having to pay significant compensation or in extreme cases facing Corporate Manslaughter charges.  

Essentially you need to ensure that you do everything reasonable and sensible to ensure that your employees are protected from harm and their health, safety and welfare is not put at risk. 

The Health and Safety Executive enforces the HSAW and provide a lot of useful guidance on their website.

Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA)

In your business you will keep a lot of records and many of these will be about your employees. You will have information such as CVs, address details, bank details, maybe even details regarding their health. The DPA controls the use and storage of personal information. There are key data protection principles that must be followed by all employers.

Working Time Regulations (1998) & The Working Time (Amendment) Regulations 2007

These stem from a European Union directive on working time and are enforced by the Health and Safety Executive and fall under Health and Safety legislation. The legislation sets out some key requirements around:

• maximum number of hours a person can work
• limits on night work
• health assessments
• time off
• rest breaks
• annual leave.

The majority of disputes can actually be resolved internally and most guidance and legislation encourages you to try to resolve the situation within your business before seeking help and advice externally. 

Disputes within the workplace can happen for a variety of reasons. Some of the issues include:

• unfair treatment
• poor communication
• bullying and harassment 
• increased workload
• ineffective management
• poorly defined job roles.

Conflict within the workplace should be treated at the earliest stage possible. This will prevent the situation from escalating and will save on time, money and stress in the long term. 

If a conflict should occur, the first step would be to talk to your employee. This should be done with sensitivity: give the employee an opportunity to express themselves, ask any questions calmly and listen to what is being said. It could be that there has been a simple misunderstanding or mistake that can be resolved quickly. 

If the matter can’t be sorted out informally, there a various options you may want to consider. 

• keep a record of relevant events, including times, dates and details
• keep copies of anything relevant to the complaint – e.g emails, meetings, etc
• consider getting help from a third-party. This could be in the form of mediation, conciliaton or arbitration
• there is a wide range of guidance and advice available on www.acas.org.uk and www.cipd.co.uk.

Disputes and conflicts within the workplace will happen, but steps can be taken to ensure they are kept to a minimum:

• talk and listen to your staff. Encourage an open culture where staff feel comfortable at voicing opinions
• have clear discipline, grievance and disputes procedures in place. Ensure staff are aware of these procedures
• train any managers on the process of handling disputes and conflicts with staff.

There’s useful guidance via GOV.UK that sets out all the things you need to know and do if you are being taken to a tribunal. 

If you lose the tribunal, it’s important to remember that employment law is about compensation rather than punishment as it sits within the principles of civil rather than criminal law.  Therefore, key things the tribunal might instruct you to do are:

1. Require you to give your employee their job back
2. Pay compensation and or damages to your employee for any injury to personal feelings or loss of income
3. Pay any witness expenses for your employee
4. Pay your employees tribunal fees.

That’s really up to you to decide depending on your prior experience of employment law and if you are not worried about cost you can use a solicitor for most things. 

However, there is a large amount of freely available guidance and information around different work place situations. Trusted guidance comes from the government websites at www.acas.org.uk and www.cipd.co.uk

A law centre or Citizens Advice Bureau will be able to put you in touch with a local legal adviser who offers a free or mixed-fee interview. Many law firms undertake pro-bono work, which means they provide advice for free. It’s worth enquiring as to whether they do pro-bono for you type of business.

To find a solicitor on your area search The Law Society’s database.