INTRODUCTION
Employment law is the body of law which governs the relationship between employers and their employees. The employment law is basically the employment rights which must be followed by both the employee and employer. Examples of these written laws are paid holiday leave for the employee, minimum pay for the employee and sick pay entitlement. I t is used in situations where there are disputes between the employee and employer. The disputes are taken to the Employment Tribunal if they cannot be resolved by themselves. Employment law consists of laws and regulations that employers must follow. This is to protect the employees from their rights being violated such as under pay and discrimination at work. Therefore it helps employers to know what the can and cannot do to their employees. However, failure for an employer to meet the terms of the employment law can cause serious consequences leading to one going to court involving costs incurred. An employee should consider getting the best legal representation if entering in a law suit against your employer.
UPTO DATE EMPLOYMENT LAWS
Changes to TUPE
TUPE in full is Transfer of Undertaking Protection of Employment. A proposal was made on 31st January 2014 to get rid of arm of TUPE, however it has been aborted after further discussion was made. Its removal was said to bring a lot of improbability over the use of TUPE on changeovers. Therefore, small changes are being made to TUPE:
Activities carried on after the change must be fundamental like before
TUPE must apply to a service provision change
In addition ,a new provision enabling a transferee to consult pre-transfer with representatives of transferring employees for the purposes of complying with the collective redundancy rules. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has confirmed that it.
ACAS early conciliation
ACAS in full form is Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service. ACAS is an organisation which gives advice to employers and employees on employment law and workplace relations. It also provides conciliation to help resolve workplace issues. However, a new rule was introduced from 6th April 2014 that employees must first inform ACAS about the details of the dispute before going ahead to issue the claim to the Employment Tribunal. Early conciliation will be offered for a month, which can be extended by two weeks. The time limit for presenting a claim can be extended if the employee is unable to present his claim and also if the conciliation does not succeed. This change in ACAS hopes to a have a high success rate since it’s a free service and in the other hand helps save employers’ time and money. In a way that the employer disputes are settled before having to go for tribunal proceedings.
Financial penalties for breaching employment rights
A financial penalty is a payment required as a result of breaking a law or sometimes for breaching the terms of a contract. The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 has given power to tribunals to impose financial penalties on employers who breach employment rights provokingly. Employers will be fined between £100 and £5,000 but can pay less by 50 per cent if paid within 21 days. This change in rule commenced from Aril 2014.
National minimum wage may rise
The government has raised national minimum wage from 1st October 2014. This change is believed to promote competitiveness among employers which creates good working relations among the employees. Therefore quality products and services would be offered to the general public since the employees are more motivated to work due to the salary increase. In an era of global competition, competitive advantage stems from the quality of the products/services rather than just price (e.g. Deakin and Wilkinson (1995))
Discrimination questionnaire procedure repealed
The discrimination questionnaire which consists of information about race, religion, age, disability, sex and other