Online Solicitor

An employment contract doesn’t necessarily have to be a written document in order to exist. As soon as somebody accepts a job offer and starts working for an employer, they become an employee with an employment contract and employment rights. The employee is, however, entitled to a written contract within two months of starting work, even if they are not going to be employed for that long. The contract, whether it is written down or not, constitutes an agreement between the employer and employee, in which there is a mutual understanding of one-another’s rights and responsibilities.

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A home-worker is somebody who only works from home. These people usually have practical jobs, though telecommunications and web-related jobs are also often conducted from home. There are advantages and disadvantages to working from home and the rights a home-worker has are entirely dependent on whether they are employed, self-employed or workers.

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Although the amount of company, occupational or contractual sick pay to which employees are entitled depends on their specific employment contract, it must be more than the minimum statutory sick pay. All details surround company sick pay should be outlined in the employee’s written contract of employment, which they should receive within the first two months of employment. Similarly, if no company sick pay scheme exists, the contract should state this.

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If an employee cannot make it into work, they are expected to inform their employer or manager no later than an hour before they are due to start. Twenty-four hours notice is far preferable for most employers, but obviously not always possible. When informing their manager that they are ill, an employee should be prepared to explain the nature of their illness and give an estimation for the amount of time they will need to take off work. (more…)

Although different companies will allow different amounts of sick pay for their employees, they cannot legally offer employees less than Statutory Sick Pay. Refusal to pay sick pay when it is due is the equivalent of not paying wages; to avoid Employment Tribunals, it is important that both employers and employees understand the law regarding sick pay.

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All employees have the right to know how often and how much they will be paid. This includes being informed of the date or day of payment, the amount the payment will be and how the payment will be made – directly to the bank, by cheque or in cash, for example. All this must occur within the first two months of employment.

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Should an employee fall pregnant, it is deemed unfair for that employee to be dismissed by her employer, even if she has not completed even a year’s continuous employment. Below are employees’ other maternity rights, some of which are not common knowledge. (more…)

When it comes to the obligations contained within employment contracts, employers have the following duties towards their employees, all of which they are expected to know and uphold at all times. (more…)

The Disability Discrimination Act defines a disabled person as someone who has “a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on the person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities”. Given the importance of adhering to the DDA, here is a brief insight into this definition.
By “substantial and long-term adverse effect”, we are to understand that the disability does not necessarily have to be severe to class as disabling, but must be more an a trivial injury and likely to last more than a year.

By “normal day-to-day activities”, we are to understand that the disability must affect one of the following: mobility; manual dexterity; physical co-ordination; continence; ability to lift, carry or otherwise move everyday objects; speech, hearing or eyesight; memory or ability to concentrate, learn or understand; or perception of the risk of physical danger.

From the above explication, it should be clear that the DDA definition of “disabled” includes both physical and mental impairment. Mental impairment includes all recognised mental illnesses and learning difficulties, whereas physical impairment includes adverse changes to a part of the body caused through illness, by accident or from birth. This includes long-term health conditions, progressive conditions and conditions affecting the senses. Examples include people with diabetes, multiple sclerosis, HIV and cancer, as well as people with sight, hearing and mobility impairments.

Knowing what counts as a disability is integral to adhereing to lawful conduct under the DDA. For more help and advice, seek out employment solicitors.

Anybody that has ever picked up a tabloid, or had one thrust into their hand outside a tube station, will have read about extreme cases of religious discrimination in the workplace. Oftentimes these stories are deliberately picked for their controversial nature, yet written as if events of this magnitude are commonplace example of religious discrimination. This is not the case; religious discrimination is a genuine concern for employers because it is not always as obvious as the cases we hear about in the news – most the time it is subtler and difficult to resolve without an understanding of what it is and what should be done about it. In the next couple of posts I hope to clarify some issues relating to this type of discrimination in the workplace, in the hope that it will be of some use to employers and employees alike.

Religious discrimination poses a problem for employers; they cannot make employment decisions based on an employee’s religion, but yet they must take employee’s religious beliefs into account when making business decisions. Cases of religious discrimination often occur when a workplace rule directly contradicts a religious practice, putting religious employees at a detriment to other workers. In cases like these, the employer has limited options; they can change the business practice to accommodate religious rules, or they can refuse to change the business practice on the grounds that it is a proportionate way of achieving a business goal. Both options require detailed consideration as well as insight into what the law demands from employers and employees.

In my next post I will examine these issues by giving some examples of how employers are expected to deal with religious practices that can conflict with business rules, without getting on the wrong side of employment solicitors.