Business Law and Ethics in UK: Employment Law and Corporate Social Responsibility

This report covers the broad structure of UK Employment Law and the extent to which corporations take Corporate Social Responsibility seriously. It also indicates who UK Employment Law favours - either employers or employees.

Business Law
and
Ethics

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Elaborate the broad structure of UK Employment Law and indicate who you think UK
Employment Law favours – either employers or employees ...................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
Discuss the extent to which corporations take Corporate Social Responsibility Seriously........5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Business law relates to the rules and regulations which governs the trade and commerce.
It includes the laws related to contract, employment, intellectual property, etc. Employment Law
of UK originate from the law made by government and Parliament along with judicial
precedents of the United Kingdom. Such law is emphasis on the protection of the rights of
employers and employee in the employment sector for the just behaviour of working with cosy
environment in the workplace (Bradlow, and Finkelstein 2022). Its basically states about
working hours, holidays and leave to be sanction like to provide leave in case an employee
working in an organisation is sick, to consider the health and safety of an employee, data of
protection and not discriminating on the basis of gender, age, race, religion, sexual orientation
and disability. Corporate Social responsibility refer to the concept of management where
companies consolidated the concepts or areas of social and environmental issues in their
corporate dealing and their relationship with partners or shareholders. These responsibility
covers the economic, human rights, environmental and philanthropic responsibility.
TASK 1
Elaborate the broad structure of UK Employment Law and indicate who you think UK
Employment Law favours – either employers or employees
The UK employment law deal with the relationship between the employer and the
employee. These law made by the nation ensuring free and fair working environment to the
employees of the company. It also mention about ready provided to employee in case of beach of
contract. In the absence of such law both employer and employee will suffer because of lack of
boundations on activities of employers. It specifically cover the Impairment of employee,
Bullying and exploitation, Secernment based on age, sex, religion, etc., Contract of employment,
Holiday pay, Equal pay for equal work, Minimum wage payable to employees, Paternal leave,
Sick leaves, Maximum working hours, Redundancy. Basically employment law divided into two
parts collective and individual labour law. Collective means multilateral relationship among the

employee, employer and union. While Individual Labour Law means the rights of employees at
workplace enduring by the contract for work.
The original source of laws which govern employment in the country are Equality Act
2010 - it secure the employees from discrimination on the basis of caste, gender, sex,
nationality, race, etc. and prohibits the employer from taking any unanimous decisions which
confers the discrimination between the employees on the basis of mention above. Employment
Rights Act 1996 - it states about the rights of the employees in the company (Halbert and Ingulli
2020). It also mention about the situations where the employees are fired unlawfully, unfair
termination, maternal and paternal leave etc. It also highlighted the rights of employee in the
case where employer thinks that employee is reluctant and dismisses him on this basis. The
Maternity and Parental Leave, etc. Regulations, 1999 – It states about the leaves at the time of
maternity of the female employee. It also provides for the paid leaves to all the employees for
taking care of the parents at the time when they are sick. Part time Workers ( Prevention of less
favourable Treatment) Regulations Act, 2000 – It secure the employees from discriminated on
the basis of part time and full time workers. Mostly, the employees who work part time are paid
less for the same work which is done by the full time employee. So, this enactment covers that
no unequal treatment will be done to the employees on such basis. Health and Safety at Work
Act 1974 - It is the first-hand piece of legislation which cover occupational health and safety of
employees in Great Britain. It also known as HSWA, the HSW Act, the 1974 Act or HASAWA.
It states about common duties of employer toward employee and public. Employee while dealing
with other employee. And self employed to himself and others (Green, Wilson and Lee 2018).
Article 41 the Constitution states that “the State shall make effective provisions for securing the
right to work, education and public assistance within the limits of its economic capacity and
development in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness, disablement and other cases of
undeserved want”. As the employment of UK does not support one party but it mention about
provisions which are helpful in smooth functioning of business with the effort of employer and
employee of company. Mainly, it describe about right and liabilities of both it is because there
are certain provisions like dismissal which provides the power to employer to dismiss the
employee for the legal and just reasons. On the other hand it protect employees like unfair
dismissal where they can seek justice in the courts of UK. Hence, the employment laws provide
right and duties to both the employer and the employees (Clarkson, Miller and Cross 2014).

TASK 2
Discuss the extent to which corporations take Corporate Social Responsibility Seriously.
Corporate social responsibility can be understood as the concept of management in the
corporate world. It stimulate the company to take the efforts in order to protect the environment
and society from the awful impacts of the company. It is an obligation of an organisation or a
company in order to function in a excusable way. It states about the observance of human
rights in relation to environment and society. CSR helps in attracting and continuing
employees which helps in business that is attached to improve the world by enticing more
talent by showing the value of social responsibility taken by the employees. Its helps in
promoting and strengthening the affirmative and productive working environment for
employees. The company must take action in order to fulfil its social responsibility towards the
environment. This is because while practising the business activities in manufacturing the goods
for the business it creates so much pollution to the environment. Companies are indulge in
CSR for several causes like managing their risk, recruiting employees, support their brand in
order to maximise their reach towards investors and consumers, smooth flowing of supply
chains, saving money, increasing the outpouring of resources and funds, standing out from
its competitors which is the most beneficial and appropriate thing to do (Nersessian 2018).
There are four types of social responsibility like Environmental responsibility, Ethical
responsibility, Economic responsibility, Philanthropic responsibility. Environmental
Responsibility means conduct of organization in an environment friendly manner which one
of the most common forms of corporate social responsibility. This includes reduction of use
of plastics, consumption of water, emissions of greenhouse gas, general waste and pollution;
increasing dependency on sustainable resources, renewable energy and recycled or partially
recycled materials; neutralizing the negative environmental impact by planting trees, funding
research and engaging in other related causes. Ethical Responsibility refers to the operating
of an organization in a fair and ethical manner with the purpose to gain air treatment of all
shareholders, including leaders, investors, employees, suppliers and customers. This
responsibility can be executed in other ways by setting a standard of minimum wage, if a
reasonable wage is not implied by the government. The requirement of products, materials or

components can be origin as per the needs of free trade standards and also guarantee that the
purchase is not from slavery or child labour. Philanthropic Responsibility signifies its
purpose of business in order to actively make world and society a better place ( Sroka and
Lőrinczy 2015). The company in order to act ethically and environment friendly as possible
devotes a part of their earnings. There are several organizations that contributes to NGOs,
charities and even creates their own organization or charitable trust. Economic
Responsibility is the exercise of a firm commendation for its commercial decisions in its
adherence to perform well. Its main purpose is not to increase profits but to affect the
environment, people and society positively. It helpful in connecting the company from its
customers in a affirmative way. It also helps the company to combine with the world in a
optimistic manner which will help the company to develop more in the market. It also focus on
to ameliorate the economy of the country by connecting with the society. It also allure the
employees of the company to work in the company.
As such there is no specific enactment in United Kingdom that bound the Corporate
Social Responsibility for the corporate world in United Kingdom. India is the single country that
mandates the corporate social responsibility for its corporate sector. But, in UK there are several
companies which are taking the CSR seriously. These are like Johnson's and Johnson, Classmate,
etc. are taking the responsibility of CSR in their companies. These companies ensures that the
environment is protected while the process of production in their companies. On the other hand
it can be seen that the companies which are not taking necessary steps for the CSR. There is less
affirmative impact of CSR in the corporate sector of UK because the company only thinks for
earning maximum profits. The CSR requires money to be invested by the company on it in
which the company is not interested. Moreover, it can be seen that the well developed companies
are less engaged in the activities of CSR. There are many instances which shows that the
management of the company fails to comply with the CSR. There are no such provisions of CSR
in the big firms due to lack of mandatory provision by any law to comply with the CSR. But the
companies in order to increase their constructive impacts on the society must comply with the
CSR.

CONCLUSION
This report cover two concept employment law and corporate social responsibility in UK
which conclude that employment law protect the right of employer and employee in fair dealing
of working. It helps employee in managing the relation with employer, worker and trade union it
emphasis on health, safety and laissez fare of employee at work place. So, UK Employment Law
secure and conserve the rights of the employees to a great extent by enabling and enforcing
various rights and laws in order to safeguard the safety and health of workers at workplace.
Corporate Social Responsibility are the moral responsibility which are vital for the smooth
working of an organisation or company. It aids the company in managing their risk, recruiting
employees, support their brand in order to increase their reach towards investors and
consumers, smooth running of supply chains, saving money, accelerative the outpouring of
resources and funds, standing out from its challengers.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bradlow, D.D. and Finkelstein, J.G., 2022. Negotiating business transactions: An extended
simulation course. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.
Clarkson, K.W., Miller, R.L. and Cross, F.B., 2014. Business law: Text and cases. Cengage
Learning.
Green, L.S., Wilson, R. and Lee, E., 2018. Law is a Foreign Language: An Analysis of the
Language of Law and the Use of Second-Language Teaching Pedagogy in an
Undergraduate Business Law Course. Journal of Legal Studies in Business, 21, p.76.
Halbert, T. and Ingulli, E., 2020. Law and ethics in the business environment. Cengage
Learning.
Nersessian, D., 2018. The law and ethics of big data analytics: A new role for international
human rights in the search for global standards. Business Horizons, 61(6), pp.845-854.
Sroka, W. and Lőrinczy, M., 2015. The perception of ethics in business: Analysis of research
results. Procedia Economics and Finance, 34, pp.156-163.