Employment Law (5EML): Managing the Employment Relationship Lawfully

This report provides a comprehensive overview of employment law, focusing on the objectives of employment regulation, the role of employment tribunals, and the procedures for settling cases. It discusses the principles of discrimination law, the importance of employment contracts, and the legal requirements for alterations, redundancy, and business transfers. Furthermore, the report examines statutory rights, equality pay law, family-friendly employment rights, and health and safety laws. It also addresses the main requirements of unfair dismissal law and the rights of employees to be accompanied. The analysis is supported by references to relevant legislation and case law, offering a detailed understanding of managing employment relationships lawfully. Desklib is a platform where students can access similar solved assignments and study tools.

Running Head: BUSINESS AND CORPORATION LAW 0
Employment Law (5EML)
4/17/2020
Student’s Name

Employment Law (5EML) 1
Contents
Question 1........................................................................................................................................1
“Objective of Employment Regulation” 1
“Role of employment tribunal” 2
“Procedure to settle the case in employment tribunal” 3
Question 2........................................................................................................................................4
“Principles of discrimination law” 4
“Employment contract and terms” 5
Question 3........................................................................................................................................6
“Alterations in Employment contracts” 6
“Requirements of redundancy law” 7
“The requirement of the law on business transfer” 8
Question 4........................................................................................................................................9
“Statutory Rights” 9
“Equality Pay Law” 10
“Family-Friendly Employment Rights” 11
Question 5......................................................................................................................................12
“Major provisions of Health and safety law” 12
“Implied duties and its relevance” 13
“Freedom of association” 13
Question 6......................................................................................................................................14
“Main requirements of unfair dismissal law” 14
“Rights of employees to be accompanied” 15
References......................................................................................................................................16

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Question 1
“Objective of Employment Regulation”
Human resources are one of the important assets for every entity and therefore require to be
managed appropriately. Before moving to develop an understanding of the role and significance
of employment law, the first meaning of the same is necessary to understand. Here to state, that
employment law refers to an area of law that mediates employer-employee relationship. It
provides rules and provisions that govern the dealings of an employer with his/her employees.
The law outlines that provisions with respect to the rights and liabilities of each party and
confirm the standard rules and policies that must be in place to secure the interest of them. To
discuss the purpose of employment law this is to state that it aims to form working conditions,
which enable people to work in an environment free from discrimination and other adverse
aspects. Several issues are likely to be there that negatively affect an employee's interest. The
objective of employment law is to escalate these issues, which include discrimination based on
age, sexuality, gender, age and religion, harassment, exploitation, unlawful dismissal and
bullying at the workplace. Apart from the highlighted issues, employment law also provides
provisions related to other related aspects of employment such as minimum wages, parental
leave, working hours, and working environment. This would not be incorrect to state that mostly
these laws work for the interest of workers as in the absence of any such provisions or authority,
there are chances that rights and interest of the employees would not be secured as this group has
low bargaining power than employer group. Hence these laws confirming the protection of rights
of workers and employees by outlining a standard set of practice and making it compulsory to
comply with.

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“Role of employment tribunal”
Further to state that only enactment of the law is not enough unless there is an authority that can
reinforce it can assure its compliance. Similar to every other law, employment law also has the
provision of such authorities that enforce this law and these authorities are employment courts
and tribunals. These courts and tribunals penalize those organizations that do not follow
employment law or breach provisions of the same in their course of business. The requirement of
equality in employments is the leas reason, for that these tribunals have been formed in the UK.
The role of these courts and tribunals majorly come in the picture where there is a dispute
between parties in an employment relationship. These authorities study such disputes, hear the
parties involved thereto and lastly provide decision considering provisions of employment law.
These courts and tribunals works this is to state that the same plays a direct role. These courts
and tribunals are responsible to conduct actual hearing of dispute cases involving a claimant and
defendant. In conjunction with this direct role, these courts and tribunals also have their indirect
role that is simply their existence. By the fact that there is an authority, employers have grown
fearful of being sued and fine (Essack, 2018).
“Procedure to settle the case in employment tribunal”
There is a set procedure to resolve the employment disputes before these tribunals. A total of
three members are there in the panel, which is known as the tribunal panel. This panel hears and
decides the case. Out of these three people, one is the employment judge who runs the
proceedings, one is representative of the employer's organization, and one is an employee's
organization representative. The atmosphere of a court is similar to a court however less formal.
The aggrieved party can make initiate a claim through online mode by sending a post tot the

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tribunal. This claim is required to be made in the form named ET1 claim form. On receipt of this
claim form, the tribunal sends this form to the employer to get their response or defense.
Respondent is required to file their response in ET3. The hearing gets starts when parties of the
dispute to the tribunal and argue the case. Here representative represents to the parties and panel
consider proves from both the side. After considering facts, arguments are evidence presented by
parties, the panel decides the final matter (citizensadvice.org.uk, 2020).
Question 2
“Principles of discrimination law”
Discrimination at the workplace refers to a situation where an employer arranges different
treatment for different employees. The important thing to note here is that discrimination is not
always bad as mainly two types of discrimination are there i.e. lawful discrimination and
unlawful discrimination. As the name implies, lawful discrimination is the one where an
employer discriminates between employees based on lawful and valid reasons. For instance, if
the two employees have different skills or knowledge then the employer can discriminate
between them based on these characteristics. To clarify the difference between lawful and
unlawful discrimination, the Equality Act 2010 outlines some protected characteristics. If an
employer does discrimination based on one or more of such characteristics then such
discrimination is considered as unlawful discrimination. These protected characteristics include
religion, age, gender reassignment, sex, pregnancy, race, sexual orientation, marriage, and civil
partnership and disability.
No employer is allowed to discriminate among employees during recruitment, selection or in any
other area of employment due to one of the more abovementioned aspects. A further employer

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can discriminate employees in direct as well as indirect manner. In the case of direct
discrimination, the employer treats one or more employees less or more favorably in comparison
to others. On the different side, indirect discrimination refers to a situation where the employer
makes the same arrangement and policies for each employee but it has the worst impact on some
of the employees than others (citizensadvice.org.uk, 2020).
The following key points will be included in the presentation titled ‘managing recruitment,
selection and appointments lawfully’
 Everyone has the necessary skills and qualifications must be able to apply for the job
irrespective of protected characteristics.
 Job post and vacancies must not restrict anyone or more social group
 While selecting candidates for the job post, the only criteria of selection must be
qualification and suitability of the person for the job.
 Managers must ensure to escalate the situation such as nepotism while the process of
selection
 The conditions of appointment must not pursue direct or indirect discrimination
The above points indicate and conclude that manager needs to ensure that equal opportunities are
granted to everyone who gives an interview for a post and lastly the most eligible candidate gets
a chance to serve following a fair selection and recruitment process.
“Employment contract and terms”
The development of an employment contract is one of the important steps in the process of
selection of employees. An employment contract is a type of contract, which includes the rights
and liabilities of the employer as well as employees. It contains their mutual terms on wages,

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holidays, duties of both the parties and other related aspects. The lead purpose of such contracts
is to create and maintain a clear understanding of the expectations of both parties during the term
of employment. In addition to this, these contracts can help and assist in resolutions of future
disputes. An employment contract may be written as well as oral, nevertheless to avoid any
hurdle in the future, it is recommended to makes such contracts in writing. It is an entitlement of
workers to get a written statement related to their employment terms and conditions within two
calendar months of starting the work. This entitlement is granted under “The Employment Rights
Act 1996”.
Such a contract may consist of express as well as implied terms. As the name implies express
terms are those terms which are decided mutually between the parties clearly, however, implied
terms refer to those which exist in a contract due to the nature of work, the practice of industry,
application of the statute, collective agreements or another reason. The provisions of the
common law of contract apply to employment contracts also and in this way it needs to have
certain elements such as offer, acceptance, consideration, intention to create legal relation and
certainty of the terms. An employment contract is formed when the employee accepts the offer
made by the employer and they agree on the same conditions.
Question 3
“Alterations in Employment contracts”
Sometimes there is a situation, which affects working conditions for workers and employees, and
in such a situation, it becomes necessary to make changes in the employment contracts.
Relocation is one such situation where these contracts demand alteration. Here to mention that
changes in employment contracts are not easy as these are legal documents and therefore law

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outlines a particular manner for the same Changes can be done in employment contracts lawfully
by consultation and discussion between employer and employee. In doing so, employers are
required to inform the situation and the potential changes in the current employment status to the
employee and only pursue these changes when both the parties agree on the same point.
Negotiation also plays an important part here. The time of consultation, vary as per the number
of employees and the seriousness of the matter. If numbers of the employee are many then the
employer may plan collective consultation. However, even after this collective consultation, the
employer needs to address issues of individual employees. It is possible that consultation does
not always work successfully hence there is the possibility of its failure. In such a situation, some
other ways are also there, using that changes in employment contracts can be done. The first way
is to ignore the will of the employee and to make the potential changes. Nevertheless, it is not a
lawful manner and employees can initiate the claim of constructive dismissal. The second way is
to dismiss the employee from the current position and to offer new employment terms and
conditions where there is possible that employee can initiate the proceedings of unfair dismissal.
The last option that seems left to be with the employer is to drop the idea of business
restructuring but the same will lead to economic harm for the business. Hence, the only lawful
way is a consultation with employees.
“Requirements of redundancy law”
Redundancy refers to a situation where the position of an employee/worker remains no longer
needed for the employer. In such a situation employer, terminate the employment of such
workers and employees. The situation of redundancy needs to manage lawfully. As it directly
affects the employment of employees negatively, hence it is important to deal with the situation
legally and validly considering the interest of employees as well. There are some minimum

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requirements of redundancy law that need to study here. The very first requirement says that the
employer must use an objective and fair way to select job roles for the redundancy. The second
requirement is to serve the notice period. The minimum time length of the notice period depends
on the employment period served by employees (acas.org.uk, 2020). If the employer does not
have enough time to serve this notice or some other reasons are there behind not serving such
notice then a lump sum payment can be made in lieu of notice. In those cases where an employer
offers a compromise agreement, he/she needs to pay for independent legal advice to employees.
Another and one of the major requirements of redundancy is consultation.
The first one is collective consultation. In those cases where the number of effective employees
is less than 20 then the employer must consultant individually. As earlier discussed, the number
of employees and other related aspects determines the time of consultation. Many times,
employees have their own issues that they are not comfortable sharing with everyone. This is the
reason that individual consultation seems necessary. While informing the redundancy scheme to
employees, the employer must hear the issues of each employee and resolve them in the best
possible manner. Following this process, the employer may come to know about specific issues
of employees. The third step is to think of alternative employment. At this stage, the employer
must think of the alternative employment that can be provided to the employees. In the case of
more than 100 employees, collective consultation is mandatory (moneyadviceservice.org.uk,
2020). After this consultation, the employer provides redundancy notice that further ends the job.
“The requirement of the law on business transfer”
The situation where an employer sells or transfers his/her business or part of the business to a
third party, known as a business transfer. The entity remains the same and the only owner gets
change. A business transfer may be done in several ways such as by transferring business units

Employment Law (5EML) 9
or provision of services. Due to a business transfer, the previous employer or a new employer
may not dismiss any employee due to this transfer only. To discuss requirements of laws on
business transfer this is to state that the new employer has to employ all those employees who
are associated with the previous employer immediately before the subject transfer. In addition to
this, two other major requirements are also there. The first requirement is the disclosure of
employee liability information. The outgoing employer is liable to provide information related to
all the transferring employees to the incoming employer. Such information includes age, identity,
salary, details of disciplinary actions taken in the past and others. The second requirement of this
law is related to information and consultation. At the time of business transfer, employers need
to consult and inform the employees with the help of their representatives. Such information
requires to be provided in writing and must include details such as the reason of the transfer, time
of the same, social, legal or economic implications, any changes in the employment conditions if
any and every other related information that may affect the interest of employees
(archive.acas.org.uk, 2020).
Question 4
“Statutory Rights”
There are many issues arise while managing pays, working times and leaves of employees. These
issues include breach of the applicable statute, discrimination, and other unlawful tasks. For each
of the aspects such as pay, working time and leaves there is particular legislation that provides
provisions related to the same. Starting the discussion from pay, this is to state that the Equality
Act 2010 gives the right to employees where they can receive the same pay for the same work.
There have been many cases where the court held employees entitled to the same pay for the
same work. For instance, in the case of Springboard Sunderland Trust v Robson [1992] IRLR

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261, it was provided that employees who do different work of similar values are entitled to
receive the same pay. To ensure that the organization is paying equal wages, pay audits can be
implemented. It is a statutory right of employees. There are also statutory rights related to leaves.
A full-time employer has an entitlement of leave of 5.6 weeks, which means a total of 28 days
in a year. If employer wishes, he./she may include or exclude bank holidays out of these 28 days
of leave. These 28 days will be paid annual leave (brighthr.com, 2020).
Working Time Regulations 1998 is another important legislation that outlines provisions related
to standard working hours. As per this legislation, a full-time employee is not liable to work for
more than 48 hours in a week (legislation.gov.uk, 2020). It means an employer cannot ask the
workers to work more than prescribed hours in ordinary conditions. However if employee
wishes, he/she can do work for more than 48 hours. Further, if an employer wants a worker to do
overtime, the same cannot do so without offering overtime wages. These are some of the major
statutory rights of workers. In the case of East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust v
Flowers and others [2019] EWCA Civ 947, an Employment Tribunal has decided that
employees are entitled to take the voluntary overtime into account for the calculation of their
holiday pay (employmentcasesupdate.co.uk, 2020).
“Equality Pay Law”
Equal pay law is a whole different area that confirms pay related rights of workers. The main
objective of the Equality Act 2010 is to escalate discrimination. This act has repealed the earlier
act titled Equal Act 2010 that was fully focused on equal pay. Nevertheless, the Equality Pay Act
of 2010 confirms overall equity in the workplace. To equal pay, three requirements need to be
there, which are given as below:-

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 Similar work: The first principle of this act says that two employees must do similar work
to be eligible for the same pay.
 Equivalent rating: - Many times, organizations divide their wok into different categories
and provide them different ratings. In this situation, the work of two employees needs to
fall in the same category for the purpose of eligibility under the Equality Act 2010.
 Equivalent value: - In those cases where no analytical job evaluation is done, but
employees do work of similar value, they eventually become entitled to receive the same
pay as others.
“Family-Friendly Employment Rights”
Apart from the above points, the law also grants some family-friendly rights to employees. An
employee is also a social person and has some social responsibilities. In such a situation, to
perform these social duties, there are some additional benefits available to employees in the form
of family-friendly benefits. Such rights include maternity leave, paternity leaves, right of flexible
working hours and others. A pregnant female employee is entitled to maternity leaves. Such an
employee is entitled to ordinary as well as additional maternity leave. These leaves are of 26
weeks, separately. It means the total leaves of 52 weeks can be taken, however, only 39 weeks
out of this period will be paid (Moneyadviceservice.org.uk, 2020).
Not only female but male employees also do have some social liabilities hence is entitled to
paternity leave when his partner delivers a baby. An ordinary leave with the pay of £139.58 per
week is allowed to such a male employee (Cheary, 2020). In addition to these leaves, an
employee who has completed 26 weeks of employment by 30th June 2014 can demand to work in
the hours of his/her comfort. However, such a request must be reasonable and must be as per the

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other requirement of related law. Here managers need to ensure that they deal with every right of
employees/workers in a legal, valid, and reasonable manner.
Question 5
“Major provisions of Health and safety law”
Many negative situations may arise at the workplace that can affect the physical or mental health
of employees. To prevent these issues, there is a requirement of health and safety law. In the UK,
Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HASAWA) is the workplace health and safety law that
ensures that workers have access to a healthy work environment. This law requires some
practices to be adopted at the part of the employer, which are as given below:-
 To provide adequate and proper welfare provision for staff at work
 To provide a properly maintained safe working environment
 To provide relevant supervision, instruction, and information
 To provide appropriate training to staff to ensure that staff is aware of the health and
safety procedure and understood the same (britsafe.org, 2020)
 To ensure that there is no risk to the health of employees in the process of handling,
storage, use and transport the substances and articles
Requirements are not only given at the part of the employer but employees also require to fulfill
some obligations as demanded under section 7 of HASAWA. These requirements are mentioned
below:-
 To take care of the safety and health of him/herself as well as to other people who are
likely to be affected by such actions of such employees

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 Co-operate with the employer to make him enable to fulfill his liability under this Act or
any other legislation (MacRoberts, 2014).
“Implied duties and its relevance”
Employment contract contains express as well as implied duties. These implied duties are the
one that law exists between employer and employee through the application of industrial practice
or work culture or statutory assumptions. These implied terms ensure a level of protection that
the employer is liable to pay to the employee regardless of the terms of their employment
contract. The rationale behind these terms is that not every possible matter can be included in
employment contracts. In this manner, implied duties have huge significance as the same
provides safeguard to employers as well as employees in those situations where something has
left to be included in the contracts developed between them. It means neither party can deny
carrying a duty related to employment if they failed to include it in the employment contract.
Several implied terms exist in an employment contract of the UK where the main purpose behind
the same is to ensure that employees are managed appropriately and ethically and rights of either
party are not unavailable only because of the absence of an express term.
“Freedom of association”
The right to freedom of association of employees is confirmed by article 11 of the European
Convention on Human Rights. As per this article, the employee may form trade unions and can
be a part of the association for the further protection of rights. The subjective article provides the
following:-
 Every person has the right to join associations and groups as well as trade unions to
protect his/her rights.

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 The confirmed under article 11 must not be used in a way that may prove dangerous for
the interest of society and nation.
These trade unions may represent the employees in any matter or dispute with the employer. For
this purpose, a trade union must be recognized as one. Here it is to mention that the right to
freedom of association granted under article 11 is not available to police departments, members
of civil services and armed forces.
Question 6
“Main requirements of unfair dismissal law”
A situation where an employee been discussed without adequate, valid and fair reason is known
as unfair dismissal. Employment Rights Act 1996 prevents cases of unfair dismissal. This act
also outlines some situations where the dismissal of an employee seems fair. Lack of capacity of
employee and misconduct are two of such situations, which are further discussed below:-
 Capacity: Sometimes, an employee does no longer remains capable to perform the
existing job, or to perform it with the same efficiency, which ultimately negatively affects
his performance. In such a situation, the employer can dismiss this employee fairly. DB
Schenker Rail (UK) Ltd v Doolan UKEATS/0053/09/BI is an important case related to
the capacity of the employee. In this case, the court held the employer entitled to dismiss
the employee who has been sick and there were chances that he may encounter the stress
if he would rejoin the employment (Phillips, 2020). However, at the event of employee
incapability, an employer must help them.
 Conduct: - Many times, employees pursue misconduct at the workplace and in such a
situation employer can dismiss the employee. Dismissal is fair where the misconduct is

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gross or serious. In the case of serious misconduct, the employer may issue a written
warning that non-improvement in the behavior may lead to their dismissal. Nevertheless,
in the case of gross misconduct, the employer is entitled to dismiss the employee
immediately. Gross misconduct includes incidents such as physical violence, serious
insubordination, theft, or gross negligence.
“Rights of employees to be accompanied”
Acas Code of Practice: Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures outlines certain requirements to
be grievance hearings and Serious disciplinary meetings. As per this code, employees are entitled
to be accompanied at every disciplinary meeting. Any colleague or trade union may accompany
him/her but not a lawyer. Nevertheless, a lawyer or a legal representative may accompany an
employee in those cases where the matter is as serious as can out the significant impact on the
career of an employee. The code has been amended recently and provides the below-mentioned
rights:-
 A request is needed to be made by an employee to avail of the right to be
accompanied.
 The employee is entitled to choose the companion of choice Acas (2013).
 If no companion is available then the employer is liable to postpone the hearing and
not forcing an employee to take part in hearing without the assistance of a
companion.
 Such a companion can address the hearing and also may respond on behalf of the
employee (further explanation) but cannot answer the questions on his/her behalf.
The above-said rights are confirmed by ACAS code, however, it is also demanded that such
rights must not be used appropriately and not in a way, which is a detriment to the employer.

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References
Acas (2013) Who can accompany workers to grievance hearings? [online] Available from:
http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4581 [Accessed on 17/04/2020]
acas.org.uk. (2020) Manage staff redundancies. [online] Available from:
https://www.acas.org.uk/manage-staff-redundancies/give-employees-notice-of-redundancy
[Accessed on 17/04/2020]
archive.acas.org.uk. (2020) Transfer of undertakings (TUPE). ? [online] Available from:
https://archive.acas.org.uk/tupe [Accessed on 17/04/2020]
brighthr.com. (2020) Employee annual leave entitlements. ? [online] Available from:
https://www.brighthr.com/articles/leave-and-absence/annual-leave/what-are-typical-employee-
annual-leave-allowances/ [Accessed on 17/04/2020]
britsafe.org. (2020) The Health and Safety at Work Act Explained. [online] Available from:
https://www.britsafe.org/training-and-learning/find-the-right-course-for-you/informational-
resources/health-and-safety-legislation-what-you-need-to-know/ [Accessed on 17/04/2020]
Cheary, M. (2020) Maternity and paternity leave: What you need to know. [online] Available
from: https://www.reed.co.uk/career-advice/maternity-and-paternity-leave-what-you-need-to-
know/ [Accessed on 17/04/2020]
citizensadvice.org.uk. (2020) Employment tribunal hearings.
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/problems-at-work/employment-tribunals/employment-
tribunal-hearings/ [Accessed on 17/04/2020]

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citizensadvice.org.uk. (2020b) Indirect discrimination. ? [online] Available from:
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discrimination/what-are-the-different-types-
of-discrimination/indirect-discrimination/ [Accessed on 17/04/2020]
DB Schenker Rail (UK) Ltd v Doolan UKEATS/0053/09/BI.
East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust v Flowers and others [2019] EWCA Civ 947
employmentcasesupdate.co.uk. (2020) East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust v Flowers
and others [2019] EWCA Civ 947. [online] Available from:
https://www.employmentcasesupdate.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed39735 [Accessed on 17/04/2020]
Equal Act 2010
Essack, Y. (2018) Roles and Responsibilities of an Employment Tribunal. [online] Available
from: https://toughnickel.com/business/Roles-and-Responsibilities-of-an-Employment-Tribunal
[Accessed on 17/04/2020]
Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
legislation.gov.uk. (2020) The Working Time Regulations 1998. ? [online] Available from:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/1833/regulation/4/made [Accessed on 17/04/2020]
MacRoberts. (2014) MacRoberts on Scottish Construction Contracts. UK: John Wiley & Sons.
Moneyadviceservice.org.uk. (2020) Maternity leave and pay.
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/maternity-pay-and-leave [Accessed on
17/04/2020]
Phillips, G. (2020) Employment Law 2020. Guildford: College of Law Publishing.

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Springboard Sunderland Trust v Robson [1992] IRLR 261
The Employment Rights Act 1996