10 Things You Didn’t Know About Employment Law

Whether you’re an employer or an employee, there are certain things that you should know about employment law that will help you in the workplace.Here’s what you need to know.1. There are lots of regulations that employers must follow. For instance, there are more than 25 statutes, 100 statutory instruments, 36 European Directives, and 20 Codes of Practice. It’s no wonder that employers never feel that they are on top of all the legal expectations and requirements.2. The contract of employment doesn’t have to be written down. The fact that the employer has offered the position, and the employee has accepted the position means that a contract has been formed. However, it is a good idea to have formal written contracts for all of your employees.3. If you want to change employee contracts, for either one worker, or all of them, then you will need to obtain the consent of all parties involved. You might want to change their job description, change their place of work, increase their pay, or change the number of hours they work. If employees don’t agree to the changes, then you can’t just change their contracts anyway.4. A Compromise Agreement is a legal document that will terminate the employment of a worker, and also means that the employee signs away their rights to complain to an Employment Tribunal, and in exchange, the employee is given a full and final settlement from their employer.5. A redundancy situation can occur when the business has stopped trading, or has moved to a different location, or there are less workers needed due to a change in the demand for the products or services offered.6. There are time limits for Employment Tribunal claims. Usually this is within 3 months. The time begins either on the date the employment ended, or when the complaint was initially made.7. In exceptional circumstances, it might be possible for tribunal claims to be heard outside of the three months. Perhaps the complainant was in hospital, or there are other reasons why the complaint couldn’t have been made sooner.8. In some cases, an employee can appeal against dismissal. Perhaps the proper disciplinary process was not followed, or there were other circumstances leading up to the dismissal that were not fully investigated.9. Depending on the situation, there are no limits to compensation awarded for matters such as discrimination. For other cases, such as unpaid statutory redundancy pay, there is a limit.10. For some cases, it is necessary for the employee to have completed a period of service with the company before they can bring a tribunal case. For Redundancy, 2 complete years must have been worked, unfair dismissal usually requires 12 months, whereas there is no minimum amount for a discrimination or breach of contract case.Now you know more about how it affects you as either an employer or an employee, if you need any work related legal advice, why not contact an employment solicitor today?

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