Employment Practice

Key points Section 1 of the Juries Act 1974 (as amended by the Criminal Justice Act 1988) states that 'every person shall be qualified to serve as a juror in the Crown Court, the High Court and county courts and be liable accordingly to attend for jury service when summoned under this Act, if: he is for the time being registered as a parliamentary or local government elector and is not less than eighteen nor more than sixty-five years of age; and he has been ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man for any period of at least five years since attaining the age of thirteen, but not if he is for the time being ineligible or disqualified for jury service'. This means, in effect, that every person between the age of 18 and 65, who is on the electoral roll (and not otherwise ineligible or disqualified), may be summoned to attend as a juror in court proceedings. Further...

Job Title Key points The written statement of terms of employment issued to a new employee (as well as any amended statement issued to an existing employee) must contain – in the principal statement itself – particulars of 'the title of the job which the employee is employed to do or a brief description of the work for which the employee is employed' (section 1(4)(f), Employment Rights Act 1996). Section 235(1) of the 1996 Act defines 'job', in relation to an employee, as meaning 'the nature of the work which he is employed to do in accordance with his contract and the capacity and place in which he is so employed'. It follows that a newly-recruited employee (as well as one who has been newly-promoted or transferred) has the legal right to be told about the work he (or she) has been employed to do, his duties and responsibilities, the limits of his authority, the place where he works, and his...

( Employer's duty to provide ) Key points An employee has the right to be given by his employer, at or before the time at which any payment of wages or salary is made to him, a written itemised pay statement (section 8, Employment Rights Act 1996). This right extends not only to employees who are paid in cash but also to those employees whose wages or salaries are paid by cheque or by credit transfer to their bank or building society accounts. Note  This right does not extend to merchant seaman or share fishermen, or to any employee who (under his contract of employment) ordinarily works outside Great Britain ( ibid. sections 196 and 199). Information to be included in the statement An itemised pay statement must include the following particulars: the gross amount of the wages or salary payable to the employee on that occasion; Note  Curiously, an itemised pay statement need not show how the employ...

Key points Although not a matter that is likely to be of particular concern to every employer, there will be occasions when an employee invents a machine, product or process that is new and capable of industrial application. The question may arise as to the ownership of such an invention. That question has largely been resolved by sections 39 to 43 of the Patents Act 1977 in respect of inventions made after 1 June 1978. Section 39 of the 1977 Act states that an invention made by an employee will be taken to belong to his employer if: it was made in the course of the normal duties of the employee in circumstances such that an invention might reasonably be expected to result from the carrying out of those duties; or it was made in the course of the duties of the employee, and the nature of those duties and his particular responsibilities were such that he had a special obligation to further the interests ...