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

This essay discusses UK Employment Law and Corporate Social Responsibility in the context of Business Law and Ethics. It covers the different employment laws applicable in the UK, the rights and duties of employers and employees, and the importance of CSR in the country. The essay also provides examples of companies that take CSR seriously in the UK.

Business Law
and Ethics

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Main body........................................................................................................................................1
Task-.......................................................................................................................................1
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................5

Introduction
The business law basically works for the smooth functioning of the business in any firm.
The business law explains about the statues that are passed by the legislations in order to make
the business free from unfair trade practices that is done by the businessman. Moreover, there are
different laws that deals with the business(Albitar, et.al, 2021). These business laws are the
Employment laws, Equality act, 2010. It explains about the provisions that are related to the
relations of the employer and the employee that works in an organisation. This essay will discuss
about the different employment laws that are applicable in the United Kingdom. It also explains
about the rights and duties of the employer and the employee. This essay also studies about the
corporate social responsibility that is trending in the present market scenario all over the globe.
Main body
Task-
1. Discuss the broad structure of UK Employment Law and indicate who you think UK
Employment Law favours – either employers or employees.
2. Discuss the extent to which corporations take Corporate Social Responsibility Seriously.
The employment law contains a statute that is known as the National Minimum Wage
Act, 1998. This statue provides for the minimum wage that must be given to the employee
working for an employee. This law basically protects the employees from exploitation due to
their helpless condition. There are various cases where these illiterate and unskilled workers find
it difficult to get the work. So, these workers gets ready to work for a very less pay as compare to
what pay they are eligible for. Moreover, the employers takes the benefit of this condition of
these helpless employees. So, this act provides these workers to get at least paid the minimum
wage which is regulated timely by the government of the country (Bargain, et.al, 2019) .
The Equality Act, 2010 explains about that no employee or worker face discrimination in
an organization or the company in which they are working. This act mainly specifies the 9
grounds on the basis of which no employee can be treated unequally by the employer of the
company. These grounds includes the sex, gender, religion, sexual orientation nature, race, caste,
etc. hence, no employee can be treated unequally under this act. Moreover, if any unequal
treatment happens, then the employee can go to civil courts in order to deliver the justice by the
court of the country(Bhatia and Makkar, 2019). There is also a another type of employment law
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that is called as the Employments Rights Act, 1996. this act provides for the provisions related to
the relationship of the worker and the employer who has recruited him for that work. It laid the
provisions for the working conditions of the employee. It also provide for the sick leaves,
parenting leaves, maternity leaves, etc. to be given to the employees annually by the employer of
an organization(Elmaghrabi, 2021).
There are several duties of the employer regarding the employees of the company. These
duties and rights must be fulfilled by both the employer and the employee in any condition. The
act basically provides for the provisions related to the unfair dismissal , parental leave, sick
leaves and redundancy in the business that is applicable for the employees of the company.
Moreover, before the enactment of the Employees Rights Act, there was several other
employment laws that ruled the employment relations in any business done in the United
Kingdom. Moreover, the employer has to specify a relevant and the reasonable reason for which
he is dismissing the employee from the company. Further more, if there is no reasonable reason
for the dismissal then the employer cannot dismiss the employee under this section as per the
employment law of the country (Johnson, et.al, 2019).
There are also some duties of the employee that must be fulfilled by him. These duties
includes that the employee must not share the confidential information of the company in order
to get illegal benefits from the other party. The employee must also not misuse the assets of the
company which is provided to him in order to complete his work task ion the office of the
company. Therefore, from the above discussion it can be seen that the rights and the duties go
hand in hand. Hence, the UK employment law does not exclusively benefit only one party
namely employer or the employee. Moreover, the employment law is made to give justice to
both the employer and the employee of an organisation(Nyame Asiamah and Ghulam, 2019).
The term Corporate Social Responsibility is a type of responsibility that benefits the
society in a long run. This includes that the company is liable for the charitable works done for
the betterment of the society. This would mean that there can be different types of CSR which
includes the environmental responsibility, upliftment of a backward section of the society, etc.
so, all these formulates the act of CSR in legal terms in UK. The CSR is very important as it
generate its profit from the society. So, every company should complete its CSR towards the
society. Moreover, there is no such mandatory provisions in the United Kingdom to fulfil the
CSR by each and every company of the country. Moreover, it provides that these provisions shall
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be fulfilled by the company. This is because if the company wants success in the long run, then it
must work for the society. Moreover, CSR is when the business operates in an efficient and
sustainable manner in order to protect the environment under which it is operating its business. It
basically deals with the environmental and the social impacts of the society. It also works for the
benefits of the human rights in the country. It is basically a social responsibility towards the
society by the provisions of the company.
There are various brands in United Kingdom that are doing the responsibility of CSR in
their company. These companies includes the Thornton's , Air Charter Service and BT. These
companies works in such a way that they provides the benefit to the society along with their
profit earning objective. Moreover, the Thornton is a chocolate making company who has
delivered its services to the society by committing the CSR activities. The company has done
many charity programs for the benefit of the society. Moreover along with this, the company has
also made environmental protection policy in order to recycle and reuse the resources of the
environment. In addition to this, the company Air Charter Service has also planned and executed
the charitable programs under its organisation in order to up lift the society.
According to the UK law, the CSR is not a mandatory act that has to be performed by the
companies. It is totally in the hands of the company to take the initiative of the CSR or not.
Moreover, no one can force the company to take the initiative of the CSR. The company hence is
responsible for its acts if taken the initiative of complying with the responsibility of the CSR. But
there are some deductions in the tax if the company takes the CSR responsibility. This is because
the government also supports those companies and organisations that supports the society of the
country. Hence, it is always beneficial to do CSR activities. Moreover, it can be proved from the
studies and data that the companies taking CSR tend to have more employment engagement ratio
as compare to other non CSR initiative companies. It can also be seen that the customers also
gets attracted to the companies who are taking the CSR activities seriously. Therefore, some
companies are taking it seriously and some companies are not taking it seriously(Schulten and
Luebker, 2019).
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Conclusion
The above essay summarises about the role of the employment law in the businesses. It
also concludes about the several employment laws that are enacted by the government of UK in
the country. It also details about the role that the employer plays in an organisation along with
his duties for the employees of that organisation. It also explains about the rights of the
employees under the employment law of the country,. Moreover, it also concludes about the
CSR activities that the businesses plays in today scenario. It also summarises that how much the
businesses takes the CSR responsibility seriously in United Kingdom.
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References
Books and Journals
Albitar, K., et.al, 2021. Do assurance and assurance providers enhance COVID-related
disclosures in CSR reports? An examination in the UK context. International Journal of
Accounting & Information Management.
Bargain, O., et.al , 2019. Minimum wages and the gender gap in pay: new evidence from the
United Kingdom and Ireland. Review of Income and Wealth, 65(3), pp.514-539.
Bhatia, A. and Makkar, B., 2019. CSR disclosure in developing and developed countries: a
comparative study. Journal of Global Responsibility.
Elmaghrabi, M.E., 2021. CSR committee attributes and CSR performance: UK
evidence. Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society.
Johnson, M., et.al , 2019. The Living Wage in the UK: testing the limits of soft
regulation?. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 25(3), pp.319-333.
Nyame-Asiamah, F. and Ghulam, S., 2019. The relationship between CSR activity and sales
growth in the UK retailing sector. Social Responsibility Journal.
Schulten, T. and Luebker, M., 2019. WSI Minimum Wage Report 2019: Time for substantial
minimum wage rises and a European minimum wage policy (No. 46e). WSI Report.
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