Business Law Case Study Project 2: UK Workplace Legislation Analysis

This case study examines how law regulates business organizations, focusing on UK workplace legislation. It details the legal framework governing employer-employee relationships, including the National Minimum Wage Act, Employment Rights Act, Health and Safety Act, Employment Act, and Equality Act. The study analyzes the Sports Direct case, highlighting breaches of these acts concerning minimum wage, health and safety, and the Gangmasters Licensing Authority. The case study underscores the importance of legal compliance in business operations, outlining potential consequences for non-compliance and references relevant legal acts and publications. This case study is an example of how Desklib provides resources for students to understand complex legal and business concepts.

Business law
Case study
Project 2

Table of Contents
PROJECT 2......................................................................................................................................1
Ways in which law regulated the business organisations...........................................................1
Workplace legislation with recent case of sport direct...............................................................1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................3

PROJECT 2
Ways in which law regulates the business organisations
A business is formed, run, operated and ended as per legal terms which are provided
under various different laws. These laws include the national minimum wages act, 1988, the
employment rights act, 1986, Health and safety act, 1974, employment act, 2015, the
employment regulations 1999 and theirs. All these act directs the relationship between
employers and employees. The employers are required to give all the rights and privileges
provided to them under all these various law. The employee can take legal actions against the
employer if their rights and privileges are infringed by the employers. The legal framework
provide the laws and legislation to ensure that the employee gets their basic rights of minimum
wages, leave and holiday pay, pension, workman compensation, fair and equal treatment, fair
dismissal and redundancy (Hillary,2017). Moreover, the business organisations are formed as
per the laws, gets their direction of legal business operations though these laws and are dissolved
or liquidated as per the legal provisions only. An organisation acting despite of these laws is
referred as operating illegally can face serious legal consequences as imprisonment of directors,
imposition of palatines and even striking out the name of company from companies house.
 The Minimum wages act, 1988
 The Employment Rights act, 1986
 Health and safety act, 1974
 Employment Act, 2015
 Equality act, 2010
Workplace legislation with recent case of sport direct
The workplace legislation applicable to the business organisations as defined in the case of Sport
directs are:
\ The case of sport direct highlighted the facts that employee were not given their basic
rights and there was serious breach for their employment rights which are given to them through
the following acts,
The national Minimum wages Act, 1988:
The national minimum wages act create the obligation over the business organisation and
employers to given minimum wages across the united Kingdom. With effect from 1st April 2018,
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the minimum wages are s £7.83 per hour for workers aged over 25, £7.38 per hour for workers
aged 21 to 24, and £5.90 per hour for workers aged 18 to 20 (Simon and et. Al, 2016). The
national living wages requires employers to pay and staff aged 25 years or older a higher wages
about 50% higher than the national minimum wage. As per the scenario, the situation that arise
in organisation related to wages are mentioned below :
Salary Sacrifice:
In the case of Sports direct, the organisation did not pay the minimum wages to the
employees and the salary was deducted for non genuine reason which is not defined in this act.
The Fairs labour out standard act required employers to pay only for time worked. This means
the for the Christmas and new years days employees are not required to receive pay but for the
sick leave the employee are entitled to pay. The employers are required to pay up to 28 weeks of
sick leave.
Deduction of pay:
In case of Sports direct there were deduction from salary, of employee is one minute late
on arrival 15 minutes salary was deducted. This is not a statutory deduction which is not a legal
one and nor defined in the any of the act.
Health and safety act, 1974:
This act defines the Working condition which must be given to the employee under the
employment. This require the employer to give the employees health and safe working
environment. This includes giving them safe and risk free working environment (BIS Committee
(2016) Employment Practices at Sports Direct, 2018). The employers are required to maintaining
all the risk avoidance obligations and train the employee for the same to mitigate the risk. In
case an employer is found in the breach of health and safety obligations there are seniors legal
obligations that he/ she can face. In the case of Sport Direct there was a serious breach of all this
requirement. The committee report highlighted all this breach where the organisation was not
provided with staff and health working environment and risk free workplace.
The Gangmasters Licensing Authority, 1974:
Another act which whose provisions are found in the breach in the case of sport Direct
was The Gangmasters Licensing Authority, (GLA), which is a non departmental public body
which regulated the business that provide workers to the fresh product supply chain and
horticulture industry. This regulation legal employment standards are upheld. The GLA provide
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health and safety, accommodations, pay, training and transport under a business organisation. All
this was found under the breach in the case of sport direct.
This can be seen that a business is required to operate as per the legal norms and
regulations which are defined under the UK legal structure. In the case of Sport direct the
agencies were in the breach of provision of this act. There are different types of laws and
legislation which direct and governs the conduct of businesses (McQueen, 2016). The main cases
whose provisions are applicable to the business are The national Minimum act, 1988, Health and
safety act, 1974, The Gangmasters Licensing Authority, 1974.
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REFERENCES
Books and journal
McQueen, R., 2016. A Social History of Company Law: Great Britain and the Australian
Colonies 1854–1920. Routledge.
Simon, K. W and et.al, 2016. Legal, registration, and taxation issues of associations. In The
Palgrave handbook of volunteering, civic participation, and nonprofit associations(pp.
1139-1161). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Hillary, R. ed., 2017. Small and medium-sized enterprises and the environment: business
imperatives. Routledge.
Online
BIS Committee (2016) Employment Practices at Sports Direct. 2018. [PDF].Available
through:<https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmbis/
219/219.pdf>.
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