Employment Law Basics

Miranda Mulligan, Senior Employment Solicitor, explains the fundamentals that every established or new employer needs to know plus an update on changes introduced in 2024.

Q Do I need to give staff a written contract?

A

In short, yes. Under the Employment Rights Act 1996, an employer is required to provide its workers and employees on day one of their employment or engagement, a written statement of terms setting out certain key information.

This information is usually contained in a contract of employment. The information to be provided includes details of pay, benefits, working hours/days, period of notice and a brief description of the individual’s work.

Q Can I just dismiss an employee without two years’ service?

A

Whilst two years’ service is usually required to bring a claim for unfair dismissal, to avoid which an employer needs to establish a fair reason for dismissal such as redundancy or poor performance and follow a fair process before reaching any decision to terminate employment, it does not follow that before that time an employer can act with impunity.

This is because even without service, an employee may be able to bring an automatic unfair dismissal claim in certain circumstances, such as when there has been an act of whistleblowing, or a claim for discrimination if there has been detrimental treatment because of a protected characteristic such as age, race or gender amongst others.

Q Does any employer need to have any policies in place?

A Yes, there are some policies which should be put in place setting out your procedures for dealing with disciplinary matters and a grievance process which sets out the mechanism whereby an employee can raise complaints with their employer. Such policies are usually contained within a Staff Handbook.

In addition to this, there are policies which are not mandatory but are helpful to have, such as holiday and IT policies. Additionally, an employer should provide staff with a privacy notice setting out the information collected and processed by the employer in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018.

Q Have there been any recent changes that employers need to be aware of?

A Yes, changes have recently been introduced to the Working Time Regulations 1998 affecting holiday entitlements for workers who work irregular hours. The Working Time Regulations now contain a statutory mechanism to work out the rate of holiday leave accrual for such workers. Additionally, a new right to unpaid leave for carers was also introduced in April 2024 and employers should familiarise themselves with these changes.

Q Can my employee request flexible working when they start employment?

AYes, since 6 April 2024, the requirement to have 26 weeks’ continuous service has been removed and an employee can now request flexible working from day one of their employment. Flexible working requests are changes to the hours, days or place of work.