Happy New Year Everyone………..we hope you enjoyed a restful break over the holidays!

If you’ve been checking out our website over the holidays, you’ll have noticed that we’ve completed adding all of our content, including a link to our FREE HR Health Check Questionnaire.

We’re also going to start posting on our blog on a regular basis and trust our entries will prove informative and useful.

To kick things off, this initial entry provides a general overview of the complexity of UK Employment Law and Health & Safety Legislation and how this directly affects Employers.

Complex UK Employment Laws

The UK has some very complex employment laws and even before you employ someone, you have legal responsibilities, right from the beginning of the relationship.

When you write an advertisement looking to employ people you need to make sure the advert doesn’t discriminate when it comes to religion, race, gender or sexual orientation or on the grounds of age or the fact that a woman has children.

Work Permits, Employment Contracts, Holiday Entitlement

All employers need to be aware that there are rules governing who they can employ and in what capacity – it is the responsibility of the employer to find out whether staff members require work permits in order that they can work legally in the UK.

Employers should also provide their employees with contracts that state the amount they will be paid, how long they have to work, whether they will get breaks and what holiday entitlement they should have. Under UK law employers are also obliged to pay employees at least the Government minimum wage.

Employers should also provide employees with company information such as whether they close on bank holidays and what the policies and procedures are for settling grievances and finding out about sick pay and pensions etc.

There are rules governing sickness and there are rules governing what is a dismissible offence and what constitutes unfair dismissal. Employers need to know what constitutes unfair dismissal because if they are accused of it they could be taken to a tribunal and ordered to pay substantial compensation to an ex employee.

Employee Health & Safety

Once a decision to employ someone has been made, employee’s legal status has been verified, a contract of employment has been produced and a company handbook detailing all important company policies and procedures has been provided, Employers must then take responsibility for the health and safety of their employees and whilst there are government guidelines regarding health and safety at work, it is largely up to each Employer to decide what is safe and what is not.

The complexity of Employment Law and Workplace Health & Safety and the impact they have on businesses should not be underestimated!

If you are an employer and want to ensure you are compliant with the latest Employment Law and adequately protecting your business against the costs associated with Industrial Tribunals, Employee Liability Claims, etc, it is best to retain the services of HR experts who can bring clarity to the complexity of Employment Law and Workplace Health & Safety and provide you with robust HR solutions that will protect your interests.