The Foundations of Employment Law and Contracts (job sites)
No commentsBy Mas Smith
Despite being called a contract, an employment contract doesnt have to exist as a written document for up to two months after an employee starts working for an employer. Don’t contact your employment law solicitor if you have only been in a job for 2 months and have not got a written contract! However, the moment an agreement is struck between employer and employee and work commences, there is a contract in place and both parties have obligations and rights. Unlike a contract to provide services, an employment contract, whether it is in physical form or not, represents a mutual understanding of one-anothers rights and responsibilities under employment law and, for this reason, it is vitally important that both employers and employees understand their rights under employment law.
When an employee starts working for an employer, they accept the terms and conditions of an employment contract, to which they are bound until the contract ends or is changed. A change in the terms of an employment contract can be instigated by either the employer or the employee, though both must agree to the new terms. A common change in employment contracts requested by both parties, for example, is the application for an employee to work at home.
When working from home, employees have the same employment rights as those who work in a conventional environment. Furthermore, before an employee can be allowed to work at home, the employer must ensure that their employee will be safe in their workplace, which includes adequate training for all machinery, equipment, heavy loads and hazardous substances. Since employees who work from home often have practical jobs, this is especially important for employers to bear in mind when requesting that the employee work from home instead of their normal workplace.
Although employers can request that an employee considers working from home, employment law does not allow them to force an employee to do so against their will. Similarly, although employees can request to work from home, employers are not required by law to allow them to do so. Even in the case of employees with young or disabled children, employers are not required to let them work from home, or to give them paid leave to care for sick dependents.
However, if an employee has to take time off work for their own illness, they may be entitled to sick pay. Although employers are not required to pay any extra contractual or occupational sick pay, they are obliged to pay a minimum rate of statutory sick pay of 79.15 per week, on the condition that the employee is earning more than 97 per week and is ill for more than four days in a row. Subject to the same tax and national insurance contributions as regular payment, statutory sick pay lasts for around 28 weeks, after which an employee must claim Employment and Support Allowance, by filling in an SSP1 form. Employees cannot, however, be dismissed for being sick just as they cannot be dismissed for falling pregnant.
Even if she has not completed a single year of continuous employment with an employer, an employee cannot be fairly dismissed for falling pregnant. Instead, she is entitled to 26 weeks of standard maternity leave, an additional 26 weeks of extended leave and paid leave for ante-natal care, after which she has the right to return to work in a comparable position, under the same contractual conditions as when she left. With the exception of payment, she also has the right to the same contractual terms whilst on maternity leave as she had when at work.
All the above are important considerations to take into account when taking on new employees or new jobs. The employment rights of both employee and employer are in place whether there is a written contract or not; an understanding of these right is hence of paramount importance.
Mas is an experienced freelance writer and has experience writing about employment related issues. Visit her blog at http://www.online-solicitor.co.uk
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Thursday, July 29th, 2010 at 5:55 pm and is filed under employment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
