Employment Law Advice for Employees - FAQs

General Employment Issues

Q. As a worker what are my statutory rights?

A. As a worker, you have various statutory rights including:

The right to the national minimum wage
Not to suffer detriment for exercising rights in respect of the national minimum wage
Protection against unlawful deduction from wages
Working Time Regulation provisions in relation to paid annual leave, rest breaks and maximum, working week
Not to suffer detriment for exercising rights in respect of the Working Time Regulations
Right not to suffer discrimination
Not to suffer less favourable treatment due to part time worker rights
Right to be accompanied at disciplinary or grievance hearings
Not to suffer a detriment for exercising the right to be accompanied at disciplinary hearing or grievance hearing

Q. Who is covered by the maximum working hours?

A. The Working Time Regulations 1998 apply to most workers with some exemptions.

Q. What is the difference between a worker and an employee?

A. An employee is a person employed under a contract of employment. A worker who is not an employee is said to be engaged under a contract of its own kind.

Q. What are the legal minimum periods of rest for an adult worker?

A. Under the Working Time Regulations 1998, adult workers have the right to:

a minimum rest break of 20 minutes in the course of any working day that exceeds six hours
a minimum daily rest period of at least 11 consecutive hours in each 24-hour period during which they work for the employer
and an uninterrupted weekly rest period of at least 24 hours

The rights to a minimum daily and weekly rest period do not apply in relation to shift workers when they change shift and cannot take a daily or weekly rest period between the end of one shift and the start of the next, or to workers engaged in activities involving periods of work split up over the day.

Q. How many days holiday am I entitled to a year?

A. A worker is entitled to 5.6 weeks annual leave in each year. No minimum period of continuous service is required to qualify. This entitlement is equivalent to 28 days leave for a classic 5 day full time working week arrangement.

Q. Who can request flexible working?

A. To be eligible the individual must:

be an employee;
have a child under the age of 17, or under 18 (if the child is disabled) or care for an adult;
have worked for the employer continuously for 26 weeks when the request is made;
have or to be expected to have responsibility for a child's upbringing and have a specified relationship to the child.

Q. How do I fund my legal fees?

A. For both contentious and not contentious work, we offer an initial fixed fee appointment to our clients.

After the initial appointment, a detailed estimate will be provided in most circumstances and for non-contentious work, such as drafting contract documents, policies, appeal letters or grievance letters we will give you a quote wherever possible. The firm's policy is to provide an open and transparent pricing of our work.

For contentious work, there are a number of ways in which your liability for legal fees and expenses may be met.

It is not uncommon for people to have legal expenses insurance either as an extension to a home contents policy, motor insurance policy or specialist legal expenses insurance. If you have insurance which might cover this legal work, your legal expenses insurers may agree to this firm being instructed on your behalf.
If you are a member of a trade union you may be entitled to free legal advice.
You will no doubt have heard of 'no win, no fee agreements'. The correct term for these agreements is 'Conditional Fee Agreements'. This firm may consider entering into such an arrangement depending on the case and the prospect of success.

Maternity

Q. What are my rights during maternity leave?

A. An individual is entitled to the benefit of all terms and conditions of employment which would have applied had she not been absent except for remuneration i.e. salary.

Q. What is the minimum provision for maternity leave?
A. Regardless of length of service, a pregnant employee is entitled to take 26 weeks' ordinary maternity leave followed immediately by 26 weeks' additional maternity leave.

Q. What happens to pension entitlement during maternity leave?

A. During periods of paid maternity leave, either ordinary or additional, an employer's pension contribution should be calculated as if the woman is working normally and receiving the usual remuneration.

During unpaid maternity leave, i.e. the last 13 weeks of additional maternity leave, the employer would not be under any duty to continue contributions unless otherwise provided in the contract.

Q. What is my right to return to the same job

A. An employee returning to work after ordinary maternity leave is entitled to return to the job previously held prior to maternity leave, on the same terms and conditions.

An employee returning to work after additional maternity leave is also entitled to return to the same job on the same terms and conditions as if she had not been absent unless a redundancy situation has arisen or if it is not reasonably practical for her employer to take her back in her original job.

Q. What happens if I am pregnant, and I am due to be made redundant?

A. It is automatically unfair to dismiss a woman (at any time) or to select her for redundancy when the reason (or principal reason) for the dismissal (or selection for redundancy) is connected to her pregnancy or statutory maternity leave.

It is also automatically unfair to dismiss her or select her for redundancy during maternity leave for a reason connected to the fact that she has given birth. A claim for pregnancy and maternity discrimination could also be pursued.

If a redundancy situation does arise during your maternity leave period, your employer must offer any available suitable alternative vacancy to you in preference to any other employee who is also potentially redundant but not on maternity leave.

Disability

Q. Are there certain conditions in which an individual is automatically deemed disabled under the Equality Act 2012?

A. Yes, deemed disabilities include:

Cancer
HIV infection
Multiple sclerosis
Blindness, severe sight impairment, sight impairment and partial sightedness (provided this is certified by a consultant ophthalmologist) and severe disfigurements.

Discrimination

Q. Who is protected from discrimination?

A. Employees are protected, individuals who work under a contract of employment, a contract of apprenticeship or a contract to personally do the work.

Q. On what grounds can I be discriminated against?

A. The basis of a complaint of discrimination must be linked to certain defined characteristic which are: - Age - Disability - Gender reassignment - Marriage and civil partnership - Pregnancy and maternity - Race (which includes colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin) - Religion or belief - Sex - Sexual orientation

Q. Can direct discrimination be justified?

A. Direct discrimination cannot generally be justified. With regard to direct age discrimination this will only occur when an employer cannot objectively justify his actions.

Q. What is the time limit to bring a claim for unlawful discrimination?

A. The claim must be presented within three months of the act complained of or last in a series of continuing acts. The employment tribunal does have the power to extend this period if they consider it just and equitable to do so. To constitute a continual act, a link must be made between the acts by some discriminatory state of affairs being established.

Q. How long do I have to be employed to bring a discrimination claim?

A. There is no qualifying period for employees (including workers) making a claim of discrimination.

Q. What can the Employment Tribunal do if my discrimination complaint is successful?

A. The Employment Tribunal can:

make a declaration as to the rights of the complainant and the respondent in relation to the matter to which the proceedings relate.
order the respondent to pay compensation to the complainant and make an appropriate recommendation. A recommendation could include ensuring that a policy is more effectively implemented, staff retraining or introducing an equal opportunities policy for example.

Q. What award could the Employment Tribunal make for injury to feelings in a discrimination claim?

A. The Court of Appeal in Vento -v- Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police [2002] and Da' Bell -v- National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children set down the following guidance.

Below £600 - should be avoid altogether
£600 - £6,000 for less serious cases, such as isolated events or one off act
£6,000 - £18,000 for serious cases not meriting an award in the highest band
£18,000 - £30,000 for the most serious cases involving a lengthy campaign of discriminatory treatment or extremely serious one off incident
Awards of £30,000 should only be made in exceptional circumstances.

Dismissals and Disciplinary

Q. Who should deal with any grievance I raise in accordance with my employer's Grievance Procedure?

A. The person appointed to deal with a grievance should be objective and should not have been involved in the issues giving rise to the employee's complaint.

Q. Do I have the right to be accompanied to a grievance or disciplinary meeting?

A. Yes. Your statutory right is for either a Trade Union Representative or fellow colleague.

Q. What are the statutory periods of notice? (Different to contractual notice)

A. The statutory minimum notice to be given by an employee who has been continuously employed for one month or more to terminate his or her contract is not less than one week.

Where the employee has been employed for one month but less than two years, the statutory minimum to be provided by the employer is one week's notice.

After two years' service this rises to one week for each year of continuous service, although a maximum of 12 weeks' notice applies where the employee has been employed for 12 years or more.

Q. Does your employer have to give you written reasons for your dismissal?

A. All employees with at least one year's continuous service are entitled to written reasons for their dismissal on request. Otherwise the request should be made within three months of the effective date of termination, which is the time limit for bringing a claim for unfair dismissal to an employment tribunal.

For employees that commence employment on or after 6 April 2012, two years continuous service is required in order to request written reasons for their dismissal.

Q. If I am unfairly dismissed, what remedy can the Employment Tribunal award?

A. If the tribunal finds that the employee was unfairly dismissed, in can order compensation, reinstatement or re-engagement.

A compensation award will compromise a basic award and a compensatory award. The basic award is calculated in the same way as a statutory redundancy payment. The compensatory award is to compensate the employee for past and future financial losses arising as a result of the dismissal. An employee is under a duty to mitigate their losses.

Q. How much does it costs to issue an Employment Tribunal Claim?

A. Unlike the County Courts or High Court there are no costs for issuing a claim at an Office of the Employment Tribunal.

Redundancy

Q. How do I calculate my statutory redundancy award?

A. Please click here http://www.direct.gov.uk/redundancy.dsb

Q. How long do I have to be employed to be entitled to a statutory redundancy payment?

A. You have the right to a statutory redundancy payment if you are an employee who has worked continuously for your employer for at least two years and you are being made redundant.

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