Bangor University Law Dissertation: Job Security and Contracts

This law dissertation provides a detailed review of employment contracts and job security in the UK. The dissertation begins with an introduction that defines employment contracts, outlines their importance, and highlights the research problem of increasing job insecurity in the UK, especially after the 2008 financial crisis. The study then examines the purpose and significance of the research, including the aims, objectives, and research questions, such as what types of employment contracts exist, how secure jobs are, and the societal impacts of insecure employment. The dissertation's aims are to review employment contracts to assess job security, considering factors like self-employment, part-time work, and zero-hour contracts. The research investigates the relationship between employment opportunities and job insecurity, hypothesizing that increased employment opportunities may challenge job security. The dissertation also includes a literature review, which will provide a comprehensive understanding of existing research and knowledge on employment contracts and job security. The study aims to identify strategies for mitigating job insecurity, offering valuable insights for employees, employers, and policymakers in the UK.

Running head: LAW DISSERTATION
LAW DISSERTATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Thesis title: A Review of Employment Contracts and Job Security in the UK
Chapter 1: Introduction (2000)
1.1. Background
An employment contract can be defined as a signed agreement that takes place between an
individual employee and an employer or a labor union. The employment contract establishes
both the rights as well as responsibilities of the two parties that is, the employees as well as the
organization. An employee contract is basically comprised of the information aboutwhat exactly
is expected from the employee as well as from the organization along with various types of
agreements that cover the employees in the workplace1. By signing the employee contract, tan
employee agrees to follow the rules, regulations and polices set by a specie organization. On the
other hand, the employer of the organization also agrees to follow the same and violation of any
policies and procedures mentioned in an employment contract can call for legal intervention.
With the enhancement of bothopportunitiesacross the world, an employee contract is considered
to be mandate for every form of employment2. It is considered to be the duty of the employer to
provide a transparent and justified employment contract to all the employees of the organization
for setting out specific rights, duties as well as responsibilities of the employees as well as
employment conditions.
According to researchers, employee contract, also known as the employment agreement is
employees. An employee contract generally includes employee salary, schedule, duration of the
1Dawson, Chris, MichailVeliziotis, and Benjamin Hopkins."Temporary employment, job satisfaction and subjective
well-being." Economic and Industrial Democracy 38.1 (2017): 69-98.
2Vives, Alejandra, Francisca González, and Joan Benach. "S05-5 Employment conditions as determinants of
psychological wellbeing among workers in chile: association of temporary employment, job insecurity and
employment precariousness with job satisfaction and mental health." (2016): A102-A103.

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employment, general responsibilities, confidentiality, communications, and benefits. In some of
the employment contracts, future competition is also added.Contracts contain itemized salary,
wage as well as commission that has been agreed upon. It also includes the days as well as hours
the organization is expecting the employees to work and the number of leaves that an employee
can avail. When it comes to duration of employment, an employment contract chiefly specifies
the length of time the staffs agree to work for the organization. General responsibilities that is
mentioned in the employment contracts includes list of a good number duties and tasks an
employee is expected to fulfill while being employed3. Employee contract also includes policies
as well as procedures like anti discriminatory policies that need to strictly follow. When it comes
to confidentiality, in spite of the fact that the employees needs to sign a separate non-disclosure
agreement, several contracts includes a statement stating about the confidentiality. If an
employees’ role includes handling social media, websites, email or any other means of
establishing communication with the consumers, their employment contact states that the
organization retains the ownership as well as control of all types of communication. Researchers
stated that employment contract should lay out all the promised benefits that includes, however
is not limited to health insurance, vacation time as well as other perks that is considered to be a
part of the employment4.
Sometimes, a contract also includes a non-competitive agreement. This is an agreement that state
the employees will not be able to join organizations that will put him or her in a competition
3Waaijer, Cathelijn JF, et al. "Temporary contracts: Effect on job satisfaction and personal lives of recent PhD
graduates." Higher Education 74.2 (2017): 321-339.
4Guest, David E., and Michael Clinton."Contracting in the UK: Current research evidence on the impact of flexible
employment and the nature of psychological contracts." Employment contracts and well-being among European
workers.Routledge, 2017. 201-223.

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within the organizations. Often, an employee has to sign for this in a separate NCC, however it is
also included in the employment contract.
In order to avoid any kind of conflict and legal intervention, it is highly recommended that both
employers as well as he employees to abide by the contract of the employment until it comes to
an end. Several cases where the employment contract is found to come to an end is when a
notice is provided by the employer or the employee, cases where the a staff resigns or is
terminated by the employer. Thus it can be clearly understood the employment contracts ensure
job security of the employees. Job security can be conserved as the assurance that helps the
employees to avoid the risk of getting unemployed.
1.2. Research Problem
The International Committee of the fourth international (ICFT) stated that job security in UK is
under danger due to the extreme growth of employment in the past 10 years, after the global
financial crash in 2008. As a result of low job opportunities and higher number of eligible
candidates for a specified job role, a trend of enhancement in the number of unemployment with
lower pay grade as well as lesser job security has taken place in the nation. While the job
security of an employee should ideally depend on the employment contract along with his or her
performance and productivity, the job securities of majority of the employees working for
organizations in UK depends on the over achievement of the deadlines as well as target. This in
turn is creating a high competition amongst the employment industry. Job insecurity on UK has
given rise to a typical employment that involves part time work temporary work agency work,
self-employment as well as zero hours contracts that have become highly popular amongst the
younger generation of age ranging from 18 years to 29 years5.
5Fontinha, Rita, Darren Van Laar, and Simon Easton. "Quality of working life of academics and researchers in the
UK: the roles of contract type, tenure and university ranking." Studies in Higher Education 43.4 (2018): 786-806.

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The impact associated with the rapid expansion of employment have not only hit the younger
generation but have also imposed negative impact on the job security of individuals with
disability single parents, hospitality as well as social work industry. The percentage of the
employment has got enhanced from 11.9 percent to drastic 14.7 percent from the year 2001 to
2018. Moreover, due to a huge difference amongst the number of eligible candidates available
and the number of job opportunities, a constant situation associated with low pay is a common
factor in this situation of UK with excess number of employees competing for a single job role
since the number of job opportunities in the business industry that are offering the candidate with
reasonable amount of alary and job security is highly low. The pay packages offered bot the
organizations to the employees in UK is getting lower day by day. According to researchers, the
employment growth of UK is taking place at the expense of lower pay as well as job security6. It
has been found that in order to deal with the employment issue, the employment rate have been
steady found to be enhancing in the nation. However, this enhancement is growing hand in hand
with the growing level of job insecurity as well as stagnant pay. The rise in the insecure
employment has resulted in enhancement of self-employment, part time work, temporarywork,
agency work as well as zero hour contracts which are majorly being practiced by the teenagers
and young adults. For this demographic, the growth of these insecure forms of employment has
been 50 percent faster than for the rest of the population. According to researchers, 56 percent of
the ingle parents were in a typical employment in the year 2018 along with 48 percent of those
who are suffering from disabilities. In UK, the concept of self-employment cannot be considered
to be the result of the 2008 crisis but is increasing from 20017. The rise of self-employment not
6Summers A, 'UK: Employment Growth At The Expense Of Pay And Job Security' (Wsws.org, 2019)
<https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/02/06/inse-f06.html> accessed 26 June 2019
7co-oplegalservices.co.uk (2020). No Written Contract of Employment | Employment Law Advice UK. [online]
Available at: https://www.co-oplegalservices.co.uk/media-centre/articles-jan-apr-2017/no-written-contract-of-

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only takes toll on the job securities of the employees but also results in lack of dull time
employment that offers adequate income and pension. Businesses are found to be classifying
workers as elf employed in order to avoid paying for sick leaves, pension as well as other
opportunities. There is no legal requirement, for an employee for having a written contract
employment, in spite of having something in writing can make it easier for understanding the
contractual obligation and rights. A good number of employment contracts are found to be verbal
and thus possess no written evidences and these types of employment contract are chiefly
practiced by small business in UK8.
Also, the fact that self-employed people lacks employment rights than fulltime employees, also
needs to be pointed out. As per statistics, self-employed employees are found to be earning less
than employees who are recruited by a company for full time. Thus the enhancement of self-
employment has imposed negative impact on the living wage and poverty rate and both of them
re found to be steadily rising in UK. In order to understand the current degree of Job security in
UK, reviewing employment contract as well as job security can be considered as an effective
strategy of assessing the matter.
1.3. Purpose of the research
The chief purpose of this study is to review the employment contracts in order to assess
as well as analyze the degree of job security in UK. Considering the fact that the lack of
employment security is imposing negative in come on the per capita income of the residents of
UK, it is also taking a toll over the work life balance and job satisfaction of the employees.
employment/.
8De Cuyper, Nele, et al. "Job insecurity, employability and satisfaction among temporary and permanent employees
in post-crisis Europe." Economic and Industrial Democracy 40.2 (2019): 173-192.

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While self-employment result in lack of employee benefits, where the employees don’t obtain
sick pay holiday pay well as other employee benefits9. Lack of effective employment contract
also results in prolonged working day and more irregular work life balance. Thus in order to
understand the degree of lack of security of the employees and its impact, this research paper has
reviewed the employment contracts and job security in the UK. On the basis of the review, the
researchers have concluded whether jobs provided by both government and non-governmental
institutions in UK are secure or not.
1.4. Significance of the Research
The research will be highly significant for employees who are working in both governmental as
well as non-governmental sectors in UK. Considering the fact that in the paper, different types of
employment contracts and their benefits has been discussed on a detailed basis, employees
working in different organizations as well as employees who are self-employed, or work o part
time or zero contract basis will be able to understand the factors affecting their job security. This
paper will also be beneficial for the management of the governmental and non-governmental
organization in UK since it will enable to understand to want degree lack of job opportunity as
well as employment contract is resulting in lack of job satisfaction as well as ineffective work
life balance of the employees.
1.5. Research Aims and objectives
The aim of this study is to recognize the employment industry of the United Kingdom and
thereby conclude the fact that jobs in the UK are secure or not.
The objectives of the researcher are as follows:
9Vives, Alejandra, Francisca González, and Joan Benach. "S05-5 Employment conditions as determinants of
psychological wellbeing among workers in chile: association of temporary employment, job insecurity and
employment precariousness with job satisfaction and mental health." (2016): A102-A103.

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1. To critically review the different kinds of employment contracts available in the United
Kingdom.
2. To conduct a detailed analysis of job security in UK.
3. To identify the impacts of an insecure employment industry in the society.
4. To recommend stratagies for curbing the issue of job insecurity in the UK
1.6. Research questions
For this study, the researcher has laid down several questions which have helped the same to
reach the already stated aims of the study. The following question needs to be answered for
achieving the desired aims and objectives of the study:
 What are various types of employment contract in the UK?
 How secure is one’s job in the UK?
 What are the impacts of an insecure employment industry in the society?
1.7. Variables and Hypothesis
Independentvariable of this study is employment opportunity
Dependent variable of this study is insecurity of employment in UK
H0: Employment opportunity does not influence the insecurity of the employment on UK.
H1: exceeding level of employment opportunity has challenged the security of employment in
the UK

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Chapter 2: Literature review (3000)
Overview
Conducting a literature review is considered to be a highly crucial for a study since it helps the
researcher to have a detailed idea of previous information that are relevant to his or her research
topic. This explains how the study presented is related to prior historical studies. This reveals the
work problem's originality and importance. The purpose of the literature review is to provide a
foundation of knowledge on the research issue along with identification of the areas of prior
scholarship to prevent duplication and give credit to other researchers. Along with this this
literature review has been conducted tot identify the inconsistency, gaps and conflict in previous
studies that are relevant to the research issue that is review of employment contracts in UK and
job security in the nation.
Types of employment contracts
A contract of employment or work contract is a type of arrangement used in labour law to grant
rights and duties to parties to a contract of employment. The deal consists of an "employee" with
an "employer." This originated from the old master-servant tradition of the 20th century. In fact,
however, the contract of employment applies to a relationship of economic and social
dependency.
According to researcher, several employment contracts are being used by the employers of the
organization in UK10. One of the chief types of work arrangements used by employers can be
considered to be the full-term work contract. A full-time employment is usually permanent and
10Stone, Katherine VW. "The decline in the standard employment contract: Evidence from ten advanced industrial
countries." (2013): 12-19.

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obtain an annual salary or a monthly rate. In addition to a fixed salary, an employee can expect to
receive:
 vacation days paid
 pension benefits
 parental leave allowances
 Statutory Sick Pay
There exits no minimum hours that an employee have to work for in full time, which is at the
employer's discretion, even though majority of the full time jobs are more than 35 hours a week.
Over the past two decades total temporary employment in Europe and Japan has risen. For most
European countries and Japan, the OECD gathered statistics on contract employment for the last
25 years, using a much broader definition than the BLS over the US.11. Since 2009 comes in the
midst of the Great Recession and since temporary employees are the first to be laid off in
recessions, the number of temporary workers is expected to be much higher until a time of
recovery occurs. Set or contractual terms of employment mean that a certain number of months
is agreed for working, e.g. sometimes those positions are designed to cover somebody on
maternity leave, which ensures an employee can accept a 12-month contract.12.
The fixed term as well as temporary workers receives the benifits like that of the permanent
contracts but the cost of the holiday entitlement varies on the length of the contract. The
growing involvement of staff with non standard job arrangements bears witness to a
11Gallie, Duncan, et al. "The hidden face of job insecurity." Work, employment and society 31.1 (2017): 36-53.
12Muffels, Ruud JA, ed. Flexibility and employment security in Europe.Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014.

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deteriorationin the standard model of jobs. There are many kinds of unique working relationships
that differ from country to country in terms.
The growing involvement of employees with non-normal employment partnerships is a symptom
of the decline in the traditional job model. There are several types of nonstandard working
arrangements that vary from country to country in terminology used to characterize them.13. The
growing emergence of non-standard staff is a trend that represents the deterioration in the
standard model of employment. The words used to characterize them varies from country to
country. There are many different types of nonstandard work partnerships. The most common
descriptors include: fixed-term employment agreements, temporary work, in-house working
hours, staff contracted, transient agency workers, workplace hire contracts, short-term deals, on-
call work, zero work, part-time work, training agreements, minor positions, semi autonomous
employees as well as dependent independent employers.
In comparison, there are clearly no statistics for many forms of non-standard work. While
variations in current employment conditions, in vocabulary and in knowledge availability make
comparison between countries complicated, harmonized OECD data show strongly that non-
standard jobs have grown substantially in the last twenty years in most industrialized countries.
Apart from contracts for permanent and contractual jobs, a major type of contract used by British
employers is the part-time contract for work. Moreover, the biggest distinction between full-time
as well as part-time employees is that a part-time contract of employment requires fewer working
hours than a full-time contract. They can find the number of hours they are expected to work per
week within a part-time employment contract.
13Blyton, Paul, and Jonathan Morris, eds. A Flexible Future?: Prospects for Employment and Organization. Vol. 30.
Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2017.

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Such jobs are often permanent, like in full-time contracts, which provide wages / hours for the
amount of hours working, plus rewards and privileges. To those who have other obligations, part
time employment contracts are perfect.
In the last 6 to 7 years in the UK, researchers say more than 56 percent of workers work for zero
contract hours in the last 6 to 7 years. The principle behind null-hour contracts is to allow the
contractor to work as possible. The employer must not give a fixed time and the employee must
not work if the employer wants to.
Contracting workers with zero hours earn a regular individual equal privileges and benefits, and
the contractor must at least pay the statutory minimum wage. This should be remembered also
that workers will pursue jobs and operate elsewhere on a zero-hour contract.
Based on the company and the work given, the freelance and permanent contracts of
employment shall vary. Freelancer or consultant may be hired to work before the job is
complete, with a defined start-, end-date.
.
Employees working on the basis of zero hours contract shall provide equal rights and benefits for
a permanent employee, and the employer shall pay at least the National Minimal Wage14. It
should also be remembered that workers will look for work elsewhere on a zero hour contract.
Based on the company and services given, free and subsidized contract employment contracts
can differ. A freelancer or consultant may be contracted for working until the project is complete
14Emmenegger, Patrick. The power to dismiss: Trade unions and the regulation of job security in Western Europe.
Oxford University Press, USA, 2014.