UK Employment Law and CSR: A Detailed Analysis - UoS BA Business

This essay explores the structure of UK Employment Law, assessing its balance between employer and employee interests, and examines the seriousness with which corporations undertake Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). It covers key aspects of UK Employment Law, including regulations on dismissal, holidays, pay, and discrimination, highlighting the roles of Common Law, Statute, and European Law. The essay further discusses the benefits and drawbacks of CSR, its impact on employee engagement, and the extent to which companies integrate social and environmental responsibilities into their business strategies. The essay concludes that while UK Employment Laws significantly protect employees and employers, corporations are increasingly taking CSR seriously to enhance business skills in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments to aid students in their studies.

UK Employment Law
and Corporate Social
responsibility.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................4
Discuss the broad structure of UK Employment Law and indicate who you think UK
Employment Law favours – either employers or employees......................................................4
Discuss the extent to which corporations take Corporate Social Responsibility Seriously........5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
United Kingdom Labour Law governs the law of employment in the corporate sector. UK
Employment Law is made in consideration for the protection of employees which manages the
relation between employers, workers and trade union. The people of the country can depend
upon the employment rights, mentioned in Acts, Regulations, common law and equity. These
laws are mainly to protect the rights of employees and employers safeguarding the relation
between employees and employers and maintaining a fair environment. Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) is the responsibility provided by the corporations in relation to practices
and policies of the corporate world in order to have a positive impact on the world(Cabrelli,
2022) . The objective of CSR is to minimize the environmental facades, for promoting
volunteerism among employees of company and indirectly influencing the social responsibility
by giving charity.
TASK
Discuss the broad structure of UK Employment Law and indicate who you think UK
Employment Law favours – either employers or employees.
UK Employment Laws provides the regulation on dismissal, holidays, pay,
discrimination and various other laws in order to protect the rights of workers or people working
in the corporate sector. These acts mainly emphasize on the protection of health, safety and
welfare of the employees at work area and applies to all the people, employees and workers
employing or working in the premises at workplace. Dismissal happens when employment of an
employer comes to an end or terminates on the dis-satisfaction of the work provided by an
employer. If an employer is dismissed then there must be a valid and justified reason for his
removal for which notice is not required to be given by an employer as he is not being removed
on his own choice, consent or wish but on the consideration of the company for not providing
reasonable or desirable services (Crowther and Seifi, 2018). Holidays are a part of every

individual right to get leave on sanctioned holidays provided the government nationally. These
holidays are in order to let every individual enjoy and have time to perform their social life freely
and independentely. Pay signifies to have an equal pay for both men nd women in the workplace
for the maintainance of equality and eradication of discrimination in the employment sector.
They are also the consideration given for the performance of services by an employer and for
which they are paid or granted remuneration or considersation for valuable services offered by
them. The three basic source of employment law in the country are the Common Law, Statute
and European Law and Directives and Decisions of the European Court of Justice. An employee
can be removed from his employment without any warning, if he serves in an organisation for
less than two years leading to his gross misconduct, rude behaviour and infringement of
company policies. Since April 6 2012, the period of two years is compulsary to be completed by
an employer in order to enjoy the employment rights (Dmytriyev, Freeman and Hörisch, 2021) .
This period is also known as “qualifying period” or “two year rule”. UK Employment law covers
a broad range of issues which includes Age discrimination, Bullying and harrasment, Disability,
Discrimination based on race, religion, sexuality or gender, Dismissal and employee grievances,
Employment contracts, Equal pay, Holiday pay, Minimum wage, Parental leave, Redundancy
and Working hours.
Discuss the extent to which corporations take Corporate Social Responsibility Seriously.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the responsibility of an organisation, institution
or company in order to function in a cordial and justifiable manner. This signifies a brief
observation of human rights in relation to the society, environment and society. It is important
for a company to function in a way that it establishes social responsibility. These are the moral
practices which are important for the smooth functioning of an organisation or company
(Haines, 2018) . Some of the benefits of Corporate Social responsibility are Improved public
image and public trust which includes satisfaction of the customers by providing quality work
which is given by an improved public image and commitment towards their services, Increased
brand awareness and recognition refers to the awareness of brand as their commitment and
quality of services provided by the company, Cost savings implies the reasonable cost by using
less packaging for delivery of services, An advantage over competitors leads to advantage over

other competitors by seizing social and environmental factors through CSR, Increased customer
engagement involves its avaibility on social media platforms for coverage from the public in to
get brand level recognisition, Greater employee engagement shows the involvement of
employees for a company that has good image and commitment to human rights makes it more
appealing for the employees to work in it (Sharma, 2019) . CSR benefits the employee in the
following ways which are enhancing identification with the organisation which makes it safe to
work at workplace in order to identify and acknowledge company culture and ethics, improving
commitment leads to the increased productivity at workplace by sacrificing personal needs for
the growth of company, increasing creativity helps in improving the quality of work with
voluntary participation of suggestions and ideas provided by employees, stimulating empathy
and encouraging good attitude by actrive participation and volunteering for tasks which in turn
improves attitude towards work for the enhanced and smooth functioning at workplace. The
benefits provided by CSR to Companies and society includes improving company brand and
public trust, guaranting profit growth, attracting anfd retaining employees, encouraging
investors, enhancing personal and professional growth, fostering a sustainable environment,
improving welfare and promoting quality healthcare. The involvement of one's own asset and
reducing the cost by keeping it local, one can increase its profile with potential new customers
and recruitment. At presnt, almost 50% of UK businesses do not have clear CSR stratergy as
there is high level of business activity in conduct of corporate social responsibility. The
increasing pressure to make CSR as a business discipline has diverted their focus from the main
goal which is to align companies social and environmental activities with its values and purpose
for business in performing the responsibility(Whiteside, 2021). The lack of coordination and
logic has hampered the functioning of companies which leads to dis-organisation between the
employees, managers and other working staff. The positive impact of CSR is it helps in
analysing the business stratergies for the growth and development of company by keeping an eye
on the social and environmental activities for the smooth functioning of an organization. The
negative impact of CSR is that it diverts more focus towards social and environmental
responsibilities rather than internal functioning and mangement of corporate which in turn will
automatically improve the functioning and execution of services delivered by a company. The
company bears an expensive cost in order to be sustainable which is understanable in order to
maintain other responsible criteria. The backlash from the customers in order to provide

environmental friendly services creates a hindrance in sustaining the reliability of a
company.The top companies with best CSR are Rolex, Lego, Disney, Adidas Group, Microsoft,
Sony, Cannon, Michelin, Netflix and Bosch. The sustainability of environmental, economic and
social wellbeing for both present and upcoming customers have created a responsibility among
the business activities which is extended beyond meeting of needs of customers and hence comes
with an expense for maintaining the reliability in corporate sector.
CONCLUSION
From this above essay and report, it is concluded that UK Employment Laws is made in
consideration for the protection of employees which manages the relation between employers,
workers and trade union. It mainly emphasize on the protection of health, safety and welfare of
the employees at work area and applies to all the people, employees and workers employing or
working in the premises at workplace and the period of two years is compulsary to be completed
by an employer in order to enjoy the employment rights. Therefore, UK Employment laws do
favour the employee or employers to a great extent as much as possible. Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR), indicates brief observation of human rights in relation to the society,
environment and society to establish social responsibility for smooth functioning of an
organisation or company. It helps in analysing the business stratergies for the growth and
development of company by keeping an eye on the social and environmental activities. The
corporations have towards a reasonabel extent taken the corporate responsibility seriously for the
enhancement of business skills in a social and environment friendly manner.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Cabrelli, D., 2022. Employment Law: a Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.
Crowther, D. and Seifi, S. eds., 2018. Redefining corporate social responsibility. Emerald Group
Publishing.
Dmytriyev, S.D., Freeman, R.E. and Hörisch, J., 2021. The relationship between stakeholder
theory and corporate social responsibility: Differences, similarities, and implications for
social issues in management. Journal of Management Studies, 58(6), pp.1441-1470.
Haines, A., 2018. UK considers closer links between employment and tax rules. International
Tax Review.
Sharma, E., 2019. A review of corporate social responsibility in developed and developing
nations. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 26(4),
pp.712-720.
Whiteside, N., 2021. Before the Gig Economy: UK Employment Policy and the Casual Labour
Question. Industrial Law Journal, 50(4), pp.610-635.