Insight 40 - Magazine - Page 10
LEGAL MATTERS
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.
HAVE THERE BEEN ANY RECENT
CHANGES THAT EMPLOYERS NEED TO BE
AWARE OF?
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.
DO I NEED TO GIVE STAFF A WRITTEN
CONTRACT?
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.
CAN I JUST DISMISS AN EMPLOYEE
WITHOUT TWO YEARS’ SERVICE?
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
10
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.
DOES ANY EMPLOYER NEED TO HAVE
ANY POLICIES IN PLACE?
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.
bIZ4BIZ INSIGHT MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 2024
CAN MY EMPLOYEE REQUEST FLEXIBLE
WORKING WHEN THEY START
EMPLOYMENT?
Yes, 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.
Miranda Mulligan
Senior Solicitor specialising in
Employment law
www.longmores.law
enquiries@longmores.law
01992 300333