Business Law and Ethics: Employment Law and Corporate Social Responsibility

This article discusses the UK employment law and its three main sources: common law, statute, and European law. It highlights the rights of employees under the UK employment rights act, including hours of work, minimum wages, annual leave, and maternity leave. The article also emphasizes the importance of corporate social responsibility in enhancing public image and attracting customers.

Business Law and
Ethics

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
In each and every country there are particular laws for the different different areas of
field, like to protect the rights of the labour there is labour law or the employment law, to protect
the rights of the victim and to punish the offender there is criminal law, to protect the anyone's
property the law is framed in the constitution to protect the property also. Likewise the other
law's it should be necessary to guard the rights of the business or the people who come under the
Business law or commercial law. Business or the Commercial law have distinctive areas like the
law of the company, Bankruptcy, employment law, immigration law, contract law etc. “Business
law Is a law which guide all the laws related to do business like how to start, control, wind up the
business, the rights given under business law, right to trade , right to sell , right to buy etc. Every
law have a legal boundaries and with legal ones there are some ethical values which also get
attach with the laws and which help to make the business prosperous. Now, in the business law
the ethics plays crucial role and it becomes easy for the legislature also to tell the business holder
the way to run the business (chäfer, 2018). Thus, this essay conclude the Employment law in the
prospect of the business law and also at what extent the companies take the corporate social
responsibility seriously.
MAIN BODY
When the persons engaged themselves under some employment and become the
employee of some organisation then, it becomes the responsibility of the employer of that
institution to deal the employees legally and provide all the employment rights to them. But, the
employees rights will only generMAIN BODYate when an individual becomes the employee
of an institution or when the workers successfully completed his probation period of 2 years
then only the rights of the employees will fully generate and after that the company endorsed the
commitment of employment to set out the link between them (Macfarlane, and Ottewill, 2020).
There are the three main source of the UK employment law; the common law, the statute and the
European law.

Common law – As its discussed above that the employees were under the bond with their
employer, the common law forms the legal relationship between the employer – employee. To
protect the rights of the employees the law of tort also administer the duties of the employer.
Since 1970s there was a continuous growth in the UK employment protection bill, there were
various statute. Initially there was a Equal pay act 1970, the act was framed for the health and
safety of the employees act 1874, to protect the rights of the employees from the discrimination
on the basis of the sex there was an act called sex discrimination act 1975, to maintain the
relationship between the union and the employees there was an act of Trade union an labour
relations act 1992, to prevent the employees from the discrimination on the basis of the disability
the act was framed on 1995, give relief to the employees there was an employment tribunal act
1996, after that to cover all the laws related to the employment the employment rights act came
into force on 1996 , to protect the data of the employees there was a data protection act 1998, to
safeguard the wages of the employees and the workers the national minimum wages act 1998
was passed (Honeyball, 2019). The third source of the UK employment law is European law it
came into existence when the local laws of the UK got failed to safeguard the rights or to
maintain the relationship between the employer and the employees.
Basically the main reason to constitute the employment rights act was to protect the rights
of the employees because, due to unemployment the employee got ready to do the work under
any employee and the the employer took the benefits of the situation however there was no such
law which safeguard the rights of the employees. As of now the employment act was constituted
or amended to guide the rights of the employees. There are several amendments done in the act
and also the many rights were added in the act to give relaxation from the difficulties which the
employees were facing like;
HOURS OF WORK – In the 1998 regulations there was a provision given in the favour
of the employees which bound the employer's to assure the working hours which would not be
more than 48 hours in each week, and it is mentioned that the employer has to maintain the
record for two years to show the conformity (Boyd, 2020).
Opt – Out Agreements - Prior to this provision the employer was engaged the employee
in the work against his choice but , after that provision added the employees got the rights to
terminate the office by giving the notice of termination not more than three month before.

For the night workers the provision was added that the employer was not allow the
employees to work for more than 8 hours a day apart from the time limit the medical facilities
were also provided to the employees. And if the medical practitioner advised to the employee not
to work in the night due to some health issues than its the duty of the employees to change the
shift of the employee from night to day.
National minimum wages - To defend the minimum wages of the employees the
employers got strictly advised in the minimum wages act 1998, to give the wages according to
the work and the age of the employee.
Apart from the salary in the UK employment rights act the non cash benefits weere also
given by the employers to the employee like, private medical expenses, benefit given if the
employee died at the time of the service, allowances and the bonus given in various occasion.
Minimum annual leave - Under the working time regulations 1998, the employees has a
right to get a paid leave of four weeks annually and the liberty has been given to the employees
to get the additional leaves by giving the notice of twice the leave period. The employees were
also entitled to get the SSP. There is also an arrangement of the contractual sick pay to to the
employees (Gavin, and Maynard, 2019).
Maternity Leave – It is also in the provision to provide leave for the employee who got
pregnant, the OML is given at any time from the eleventh week before the expected week of
childbirth and also the employee demands more leave for the same reason then with the proof the
employer gives the AML to the employee.
Apart from these relaxation given to the employees there are some relief whicg were
given in the UK employment rights act like, the paternity leave, provide flexible working hours,
rights to the employees to get back on work after leave.
So, after knowing the rights under the UK employment rights act, it can be said that the
pendulum of the act was swung on the employees side. But, it cant be said completely that the
act is in favour of the employees there are some benefits or rights given on the favour of the
employer's also.
Corporate Social Responsibility – When the company decided to regulates the work in
ethical and feasible manner and taking care of the society, the environment and the human rights
then, it can be said that the company took the responsibility of society.
Its especially critical that the company runs in a way that manifest social responsibility.

Social responsibility is the key to success. According to the 2015 cone communications global
CSR study 91% of the consumers expect to operate the business answerable to address the social
and environmental issues. From the above rate it is cleared that what the consumer want that how
the company would operate, if the institution's took care of the social responsibility then the
customer would attract towards it, and there is a rapid growth in the future.
Now, it is really crucial to discuss the importance of the corporate social responsibility
that ho would it affect the business(Freedland, and Dhorajiwala, 2019).
Enhance public image - if the consumers would get aware about the facts that the
business is doing a great charity it means the consumer think that the business Is helping others
and they get attract towards the business so, it will create a positive image in the market, It will
increase the quality perception, the cost will reduced, customer will support
CONCLUSION
It is well said that doing business is not only making plans, strategies but also it is
necessary in the business to have Ethics, Honesty, Integrity, Respect which help in the
prospering the business, these moral values are also the part of the business, like the laws would
not only required to know the truth like this only the policies and strategies is not sufficient to
operate the business. So, running the business without the business ethics is just like doing the
work without interest.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Boyd, C., 2020. Ethics and corporate governance: The issues raised by the Cadbury report in the
United Kingdom. Journal of Business Ethics, 15(2), pp.167-182.
Freedland, M. and Dhorajiwala, H., 2019. UK response to new trade Union strategies for new
forms of employment. European Labour Law Journal, 10(3), pp.281-290.
Gavin, J.F. and Maynard, W.S., 2019. Perceptions of corporate social responsibility. Personnel
Psychology.
Honeyball, S., 2019. Honeyball and Bowers' Textbook on Employment Law. Oxford University
Press, USA.
Macfarlane, B. and Ottewill, R., 2020. Business ethics in the curriculum: Assessing the evidence
from UK subject review. Journal of Business Ethics, 54(4), pp.339-347.
Schäfer, H., 2018. 26 Corporate Social Responsibility Rating. A Handbook of Corporate
Governance and Social Responsibility, p.449.