Employment Law

This document discusses the development, enforcement, and modification of employment law, recruitment, employment contracts, redundancy, business transfers, and unfair dismissal. The document is related to the subject of employment law, and the course code is not mentioned. The document is not related to any specific college or university. The document type is an essay, and the type of assignment is not mentioned.

Employment Law
Running Head: COMMERCIAL LAW 0
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Student’s Name

Employment Law 1
Contents
Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................1
Question 1........................................................................................................................................1
1.1.................................................................................................................................................1
1.2.................................................................................................................................................2
1.3.................................................................................................................................................3
Question 2........................................................................................................................................4
2.1.................................................................................................................................................4
2.2.................................................................................................................................................5
Question 3........................................................................................................................................7
3.1.................................................................................................................................................7
3.2.................................................................................................................................................7
3.3.................................................................................................................................................8
Question 6........................................................................................................................................9
6.1.................................................................................................................................................9
6.2...............................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................13

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Question 1
1.1
The lead objective of development of employment laws is to grant protection to employees
(Mayhew, 2019). During the course of employment, an employee deals with many of the issues
such as discrimination, bullying, harassment, unfair dismissal and so on. In such situations,
employment law helps the employees with their rights. This law provides the rights and
responsibility of both of the party of an employment relationship, i.e. employer and employee
(Employment.findlaw.com, 2019). Before the development of employment law in the nation,
employees were not aware of their rights. In such a situation, they were facing issues in their
employment. This would not be wrongful to state the employment law makes the removes all the
confusions and provide a clear picture of rights to employees.
Another purpose of this law is to make the relationship between employer and employee smooth
and positive. In the absence of the subjective law, organizations were used to prepare their own
set of rules regarding working hours, redundancy, wages, holidays and so on. In such a
circumstance, employment law provides standard rules regarding all these topics. If to talk about
the manner of enforcement of this law, this is to state that while developing the employment
agreements, the employer needs to decide the terms according to this law. Further, in cases of

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any disputes between parties, the courts and tribunals use the employment law as a reference. In
this manner, this law gets enforced.
1.2
Only the development of employment law is not enough, but the same must be enforced too.
When it comes to the enforcement of this law, employment tribunal plays a vital role. As the
name implies, these courts and tribunals exclusively entertain the cases related to employment
law. In general, both the parties of an employment relationship (Cipd.co.uk, 2019). Many of the
times issues such as employee bullying, harassment and discrimination emerges. In such a
situation, the employee can take the help of courts and employment tribunals. These courts
ensure that all the compliances of employment law are in place.
Right are granted to employees under this law but to ensure the presences of the same, courts are
there. Whenever a case related to this law goes into court, these courts hear the whole case,
consider the proofs and witnesses, and at last, provide their decision in the favor of victim party.
While hearing the cases and granting justice, employment courts and tribunals consider
provisions of employment law. These courts provide justice against the liable party and in this
manner, spread the fear among the public. These authorities ensure the compliance of
employment law in subsequent cases also.
1.3
There is a set procedure that these courts use while entertaining a case. These proceedings start
with the reporting of a claim. After that, the other party has to respond within 28 days. Court
may call both the parties for preliminary meeting. Claimant can ask the required documents from
respondent if needed to present the arguments.

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Further, after hearing all the parties of a case, the court asks for the evidence to support the
arguments made by the parties. When the jury of a court satisfies with all the arguments and
evidence, then the same made final decision considering the rules, regulation, and provisions of
employment law of the nation.
Make your claim
Respondent need to reply within 28 days
Court will call the parties for preliminary hearing
After hearing both the parties, tribunal provides the decision
If you win, court gives order to other party If you lose
You may request tribunal to You may apply to
Reconsider the decision Employment Appeal Tribunal
The proceedings for an employment law case are the same as any other civil or criminal law
cases. The disputed cases related to subjective law are used to settle by following above mention
manner. The concept of Employment appellate tribunal is also there. These are the appellate
authority where a person aggrieved with the decision of employment tribunal can make the
appeal against such a decision, if employment tribunal did legal mistake (Gov.uk, 2019).

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Question 2
2.1
Recruitment is the first step of appointment of an employee. Whenever an organization
recruit/selects or appoint a person, the managers are required to ensure the legality of all these
activities (Arenas, Marco, Munduate and Euwema, 2017). In other words to say it becomes the
liability of the employer to adopt the fair practices while conducting the above-mentioned
activities. The issue is to determine the fair and unfair practices. Here, unfair practices refer to
discrimination. It means while recruiting or selecting or appointing any employee, the employer
should not make any discrimination.
In order to provide the meaning of discrimination, this is to say that it is a situation where an
employer treats one or more employee in a different manner in comparison to the rest of the
others (Blanpain, Nakakubo and Araki, 2008). As mentioned above, discrimination considers as
an unfair practice. Not only at the time of appointment, but later on too, discrimination should
not be there. To provide more clarification on this topic, the Equality Act, 2010 is there. This act
states nine factors. Based on which an employer cannot treat more or more employee in a
different manner. These factors are known as protected characteristics (Kelly, Hammer and
Hendy, 2014). The same is mentioned as hereunder-
Sexual Orientation
Maternity and Pregnancy
Race
Age
Disability

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Gender Reassignment
Sex
Civil Partnership and Marriage
Religion (Equity and Human Rights Commission, 2018)
If an employer does the difference between two employees based on the above elements, then
only the discrimination is treated as unfair. Moving the focus towards training session, this is to
say that the following factors will be included in the presentation:-
The criteria for the application of the vacancy must be valid. There must not be any
limited or specific requirements if the same does not have anything to do with the
performance of the job. It means the entries must not be invited according to the sex,
race, religion or any such invalid factors.
After receiving the applications, managers should consider the CVs on standard, ethical,
and legal basis.
At the time of short-listing the applicants, the lead focus of employer/managers should be
on qualification.
Managers should make the offer of similar remunerations for similar kind of job to
different employees.
2.2
Firstly, the meaning of the employment contract is necessary to review. This is to say that an
employment contract is a binding agreement that develops between employer and employee.
Such an agreement does not require to be writing for being legally binding. It means the same
can also be developed in an oral format. Nevertheless, to reduce the possibility of future disputes,

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it is advisable for the employers to make such contracts in written mode. Employment Rights Act
1996 is the legislation, which governs the provisions related to employment contracts. As per the
provisions of this legislation, every employee has the right to receive the copy of a written
statement containing all the terms related to the employment. An employer is required to provide
such a statement to the employee within two months from the date of his/her joining.
Employment contracts state all the rights and duties of the employer and employee. At the time
of any dispute, employment tribunal refers to such contracts. This is the reason that these
contracts should be developed carefully and in the development of the same, no important term
should be left to include. In general, two types of employment terms are there. On is expressed
and another one is implied. Both of these terms bind the employer and employee in a similar
manner. As the name implies, an expressed term is that which is clearly mentioned under an
employment contract (if the same is written) or clearly decided between the parties.
On the different side, the implied term is a term which is not expressly decided between the
parties but exist in an employment relationship because of nature. For instance, terms related to
collective agreements, workplace environment, culture are implied terms. Both the parties first
decide the terms and conditions of a job in mutual and afterward employer develop the
employment agreement. Both the parties are required to sign such agreement in order to covert
the same into an agreement. As soon as both the parties sign an employment agreement, a
contract of employment get establish which is applicable to both the parties equally.

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Question 3
3.1
An employment contract is not a rigid document and changes can be made in the same as per the
provisions of law. In the world full of new techniques and competition, sometimes, the employer
has to change the basic structure of their business. The situation of restructuring demands
changes in current employment contracts. These changes can be related to place of work, shift
hours, salary and other terms and conditions of the employment. Law set a proper procedure
using which an employment contract can be modified in the UK.
This procedure demands that firstly employer is required to discuss the proposed changes with
the employee. If the employer has many employees employed in the organization then he/she can
adopt the way of collective consultation. Here this is necessary to mention that even after
performing collective consultation, the employer will be liable to address and discuss the concern
of employees individually. Sometimes, the employee does not become agree to make the
changes in the employment contract. In such a situation, an employer has the right to-
1. Make the changes against the will of the employee
2. Dismiss the worker or to offer new terms and conditions
3. Cancel the plan of changes in the contract.
3.2
Sometimes, because of the use of technology or any other reason, the position of an employee
does not remain required for the employer any longer and because of this, they have to leave the
job. Such a situation is known as redundancy. Redundancy is required to manage effectively by
an employer as it affects the employment of an employee. As changes in the employment

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contract are required to inform and discuss the same goes with redundancy. Redundancy can be
discussed in the following way:-
Alternative employment: - At the event of redundancy, it becomes the responsibility of
the employer to provide alternative employment to the employee.
Collective consultation: - If due to redundancy, many employees are going to affect then
the employer can choose the way of collective consultation (The Money Advice Service,
2018)..
Individual consultation: - In those cases where because of redundancy 20 or less than 20
employees are, going to affect, then the employer can adopt the way of individual
consultation.
3.3
When an employer transfers the business to another person, then such activity is known as a
business transfer. Many of the times, business transfer affects the employees, as their employer
becomes to change. This is the reason that employees should be aware of business transfers.
Undertakings (Protection of Employees) Regulations 2006 regulates that manner in which
business transfers should be managed. According to the provisions of these regulations,
employers are required to do the following in cases of business transfers:-
The employer is also liable to provide the information of affected employees to the new
owner. Such information will include age, identity, information of collective agreement,
disciplinary action and legal actions taken against the employee in the last two years and
instances of complaints raised by employees within the last two years
(Assets.publishing.service.gov.uk, 2014).

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Discussion: - In this stage, the employer must discuss the brief of such business transfer.
He/she should inform the reason for the transfer, its impacts, and results on the
employees. The benefits of this activity are that the same reduce the dissatisfaction of the
employees.
Employee Liability Information: - It becomes the responsibility of the employer to
provide the information of the new owner to affected employees. This will set a picture of
new working conditions in the minds of the employees.
By doing above-mentioned activities, business transfers can be managed effectively.
Question 6
6.1
Unfair dismissal is a situation where the employer does not have any legal or proper reason to
dismiss the employee (Bach and Edwards, 2012). To protect the interest of employees from such
unfair dismissal, the Employment Rights Act 1996 is there. This legislation states that in the UK,
no employer can dismiss the employee without a valid reason. Now the issue is to check which
reason/ground of dismissal is valid and which one is invalid. The law provides the answer. Some
grounds of dismissal are mentioned in this legislation, which will not be treated as unfair/invalid
grounds. The same is mentioned as hereunder:-
 Conduct
 Capability
 Statutory Ban
 Redundancy (Crossan, 2017)
 Other reasons

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Conduct
Every employer expects a level of good behavior from all its employees. An employer in such a
situation can dismiss an employee where the conduct of him/her (of the employee) becomes an
issue. Misconduct can be normal misconduct or gross misconduct. Gross misconduct is a
situation where an employee behaves unprofessionally and improperly that put his/her
relationship with an employer in question. Gross misconduct is a serious kind of misconduct and
in such a situation; an employer has the right to dismiss the employee without arranging an
investigation meeting. Dismissal is also treated as unlawful where an employer dismisses an
employee for a valid reason but do not follow the procedure prescribed under the law. Therefore,
in cases of general misconduct, it becomes the responsibility of the employer to arrange an
investigation meeting in order to check the fairness of disciplinary action.
Capability
Different tasks/jobs demand different capability. If an employee becomes incapable to do the
job, the employer has the right to dismiss the same of this ground. However while dismissing an
employee based on his/her incapability, the employer must ensure the following:-
 The employee is incapable of performing the job as per the required standard.
 The employee is capable but at the same time is unwilling to perform the job properly
In cases of incapability of an employee, the employer must help the same to continue the
employment and dismissal should be the last option.

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6.2
In addition to any other rights, the employees also have the right to be accompanied at the time
of serious disciplinary actions as well as during grievances hearing. An employee can be
accompanied by his/her trade union. Further, a solicitor except in serious nature cases cannot
accompany an employee. These cases must be as serious nature that they can make an impact on
the future of employee (Daniels, 2016). The legal rights of an employee in relation to being
accompanied are mentioned under the ACAS Code of Practice: Disciplinary and Grievance
Procedures.
In the case of Toal and another v GB Oils Ltd UKEAT/0569/12, it has been reviewed that the
mentioned code was not as much effective as the same was required to be. This is the reason that
ACAS recently amended the same. Now, at present, the amended ACAS code provides the right
of employees to being accompanied. According to the amended code:-
 An employee is required to make a reasonable request in order to seek the right to be
accompanied.
 An employee has the right to select the companion of his/her choice.
 In case of the unavailability of companion, the employer is required to postpone the
hearing as per the provisions of other clauses of the subjective code.
 The selected companion can elaborate the issue, can hear the arguments of other parties,
and can reply on behalf of the employee; nevertheless, the same cannot answer the
queries by his/her own.
 Both employee and employer are required to follow the procedures stated under the
mentioned code.

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As mentioned above the right is available in cases of disciplinary action. The following are
treated as disciplinary action:-
 Demotion
 A first or final warning
 Dismissal
 Suspension without pay (Citizensadvice.org.uk, 2019)
Here this is also necessary to state that an employee does not have the right to be accompanied
during any informal meetings with the employer. In a conclusive way to state that in general
employee do not have this right.

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References
Arenas, A., Di Marco, D., Munduate, L. and Euwema, M.C. eds., 2017. Shaping Inclusive
Workplaces Through Social Dialogue. Springer International Publishing.
Assets.publishing.service.gov.uk (2014) Employment Rights on the Transfer of an Undertaking
(TUPE). [online] Available from:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/
file/275252/bis-14-502-employment-rights-on-the-transfer-of-an-undertaking.pdf [Accessed on
23/02/2019]
Bach, S. and Edwards, M. (2012) Managing Human Resources: Human Resource Management
in Transition. India: John Wiley & Sons.
Blanpain, R., Nakakubo, H., and Araki, T. (2008) New Developments in Employment
Discrimination Law. UK: Kluwer Law International B.V
Cipd.co.uk (2019) The role of employment tribunals. [online] Available from:
https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/emp-law/tribunals/factsheet [Accessed on
23/02/2019]
Citizensadvice.org.uk. (2019) Who can accompany you to a disciplinary meeting. [online]
Available from: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/problems-at-work/disciplinary-
meetings/who-can-accompany-you-to-a-disciplinary-meeting/ [Accessed on 23/02/19]

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Crossan, S. (2017) Introductory Scots Law Third Edition: Theory and Practice. UK: Hachette
UK.
Daniels, K. (2016). Introduction To Employment Law: Fundamentals for HR and Business
Students (4th ed.). London: Kogan Page Publishers.
Employment Rights Act 1996
Employment.findlaw.com. (2019) Employee Rights 101. [online] Available from:
https://employment.findlaw.com/employment-discrimination/employees-rights-101.html
[Accessed on 23/02/2019]
Equality Act, 2010
Equity and Human Rights Commission. (2018) Protected characteristics. [online] Available
from: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/equality-act/protected-characteristics [Accessed
on 23/02/2019]
Gov.uk, (2019) Make a claim to an employment tribunal. [online] Available from:
https://www.gov.uk/employment-tribunals/after-you-make-a-claim [Accessed on 24/02/2019]
Kelly, D., Hammer, R., and Hendy, J. (2014) Business Law. Oxon:Routledge.
Mayhew, R. (2019) What Are the Functions of Labor Laws? [online] Available from:
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/functions-labor-laws-61595.html [Accessed on 23/02/2019]

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The Money Advice Service. (2018) Your legal rights when facing redundancy. [online]
Available from: https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/your-legal-rights-when-
facing-redundancy [Accessed on 23/02/2019]
Toal and another v GB Oils Ltd UKEAT/0569/12
Undertakings (Protection of Employees) Regulations 2006
Working Time Regulations 1998