Employment Practice

Key points The written statement of employment particulars issued to an employee, when he (or she) first starts work with an employer, must include particulars of any terms and conditions relating to pensions and pensions schemes, and must include a note stating whether a contracting-out certificate under the Pension Schemes Act 1993 is in force for the employment in respect of which the statement is given (sections 1(4)(d)(iii) and 1(5), Employment Rights Act 1996). Information about pensions and pensions schemes If the employer has no occupational pension scheme, the written statement must say as much. If the employer does operate such a scheme, the statement must (a) mention its existence, and (b) indicate whether the employee is eligible to contribute to it, and on what terms. However, the statement need not go into any great detail, so long as it directs the employee to some other document (such as a pensions handbook) which explains what the employer's scheme is about and g...

Key points With the coming into force on 8 December 2002 of the Paternity & Adoption Leave Regulations 2002, the biological father (or the responsible parent) of a child born on or after 6 April 2003 (or expected to be born on or after that date) has the qualified right to take one or two consecutive weeks' paternity leave (either, but not both) within 56 days of the child's date of birth. That same right extends to one or other of the parents of a child notified of having been matched with them for adoption (or placed with them for adoption) on or after that same date. A parent who qualifies for paternity leave (birth or adoption) may also be entitled to statutory paternity pay (SSP) during his or her absence from work. To be eligible for paternity leave, an employee must: have been continuously employed by his employer for a period of not less than 26 weeks by the beginning of the 14th week before the expected week of the child's birth (or would have been continuou...

Key points With the coming into force on 1 July 2000 of the Part-Time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000, any part- time worker who is treated less favourably (or believes that he (or she) has been treated less favourably) than a comparable full-time worker employed in the same establishment is entitled to demand and receive from his employer a written statement explaining the reasons for such treatment. If dissatisfied with his employer's explanations, the part- time worker may seek redress from an employment tribunal. Any part- timer who is dismissed, selected for redundancy or subjected to any other detriment for exercising or asserting his statutory rights under the 2000 Regulations, or for bringing proceedings before an employment tribunal, may complain (yet again) to an employment tribunal and will be awarded appropriate compensation. The 2000 Regulations (as amended by the Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulati...

Parental Leave Key points Legislation giving employees (in their capacities as parents or adoptive parents) to be granted up to 13 weeks' unpaid parental leave (18 weeks, in the case of a child awarded a disability living allowance) is to be found in Part III of the Maternity & Parental Leave etc Regulations 1999, as amended by the Maternity & Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2001, implementing Council Directive 96/34/EC of 3 June 1996 'on the framework agreement on parental leave'. Before the 1999 Regulations were amended, the right to take a period of unpaid parental leave was restricted to the parents of children born to (or placed with them for adoption) on or after 15 December 1999. Following a challenge mounted by the TUC, and the likelihood of proceedings before the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the UK Government conceded that the right to parental leave should have been made available to all employed parents with children under the age of five on 15...

Overtime Employment ( Statutory restrictions ) Key points Until the coming into force, on 1 October 1998, of the Working Time Regulations 1998, there were few legal restrictions in the UK on the number of hours which an employee could be required to work. The 1998 Regulations, which extend to Great Britain only (there are cognate provisions in Northern Ireland legislation) implement Council Directive 93/104/EC of 23 November 1998 'concerning certain aspects of the organ- isation of working time'. They also incorporate Council Directive 94/33/EC of 22 June 1994 'on the protection of young people at work'. The reader will note that the protection afforded by the 1998 Regulations extends to all workers, and not just to those who are employees in the strict legal sense of the word. In short they apply to any person (casual, seasonal, freelance, trainee on work experience, agency 'temp', and so on) who undertakes to do or perform personally any work or service for a...