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employment law


Whether you’re a therapist employed part time, a salon ownerwith onemember of staff or a Spamanagerwith a teamof 20, you need to knowyour employment rights and responsibilities.


Themoment an applicant accepts a job offer, a contract of employment comes into existence,whether this iswritten, verbal or implied.


Once an individual has been employed for a month ormore they are entitled to receive a written statement of theirmain terms and conditions of employment, and this should be given to the employeewithin twomonths of their start date.The statementmust include details such as:


• The name and address of the employee; • Their job title and description;


• The dateswhen their employment and their period of continuous employment began;


• Salary orwages and howoften theywill be paid;


• Their normal hours ofwork; • Their usual place ofwork; •Howmuch holiday they are entitled to;


•Whether or not they are entitled to sick leave and sick pay;


• Their entitlement to join the company or stakeholder pension scheme;


• The amount of notice required to be given by the employer and the employee;


• The length of the employment if it is not permanent, or if it is for a fixed term, the date ofwhen it is due to end.


Terms and conditions should also include disciplinary rules and grievance procedures. If a business employs fewer than 20 people, only the name of the personwho should be contacted if an employee has a problem needs to be stated.


An employer can only change the terms and conditions of employment if the employee or their representative agrees to the amendments.All employeesmust bemade aware, inwriting, of the changes andwhat they are.


Once terms and conditions of employment have been agreed, a contract exists.This does not need to be inwriting and is often demonstrated by the employee startingwork on these conditions of employment. In a contract of employment statutory employment rightsmust be adhered to, althoughmutually agreed additional terms can be added. If the terms of a contract of employment are not adhered to, either party may have grounds to complain to the employment tribunal.


Different types of


contract Permanent FullTime: Full time employmentwhich can only be terminated either voluntarily by the employee or by the employer following the correct disciplinary or redundancy procedures.


Permanent PartTime: Similar to a Permanent FullTime contract except it includes details ofmutually agreed hours.


FixedTerm:Continuous employment of mutually agreed hours for a fixed period of time thatwill be terminated on a specific date.This includes people carrying out seasonal or casualwork and those employed specifically to covermaternity, paternity or sick leave.These regulations do not apply to apprentices.The employee can terminate this kind of contract voluntarily at any time, and the employer can do so after following correct disciplinary procedures.


Fixed termemployeesmust be treated exactly the same as those on permanent contracts in relation to staff benefits.


Temporary:Given to staff employed on a temporary basis paying theman hourly rate. The contractwill run for a fixed period or until a certain task has been completed.


Agencyworker rights:Once an agency worker completes 12 continuous calendar weeks'workwith the same hirer in the same role, theywill be entitled to benefit fromthe same basic terms and conditions of employment enjoyed by your permanent employees.


Working time regulations


WorkingTimeRegulations (WTR) ensure that employees have basic rightswhen it comes to the hours theywork.TheWTR instruct that there be:


•Alimit of an average of 48 hours aweek which aworker can bemade towork, although they can choose toworkmore hours if theywish;


•Aright to 11 hours rest a day; •Aright to one day off eachweek;


•Aright to an in-work rest break should the working day last in excess of six hours;


•Aright to fourweeks paid leave a year.


Enhanced rights are also provided by the WTRfor adolescentworkers, i.e. thosewho have left school but are under the age of 18 years.


Nationalminimumwage


TheNationalMinimumWage (NMW) applies to nearly allworkers and sets hourly rates belowwhich paymust not be allowed to fall.The rates for theNMWare based on the recommendations of the independent LowPay Commission.


From1stOctober 2011, the national minimumwage rates changed.The rates are nowas follows:


• £6.08 an hour for adultworkers aged 21 and above;


• £4.98 an hour forworkers eligible for the developmental rate (workers aged 18-20 years);


• £3.68 an hour forworkers aged 16-17 years.


Apprentices are entitled to theNational Minimumway of £2.60 per hour if they are under the age of 19 or aged 19 or over and in the first 12months of their apprenticeship.To qualify, the apprentice must eitherwork under a contract of apprenticeship or be employed on a government-funded training scheme that is treated as an apprenticeship forNational MinumumWage purposes.


TheNationalMinimumWage is based on gross pay - pay received before deductions of tax andNational Insurance.Aswell as a wage or salary, gross pay could bemade up of: •Any payments received as part of an incentive,merit or performance-related pay scheme


•Any payments related to sales commissions


•Any bonus payments received for that pay reference period


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