Employment Practice

Key points The following days are bank and public holidays in England and Wales: New Year's Day (1 January) Good Friday Easter Monday the first Monday in May the last Monday in May the last Monday in August Christmas Day (25 December) Boxing Day (26 December) 27 December (if either of Christmas Day or Boxing Day falls on a Sunday) or any days substituted for those days (or added to those days) by government or Crown proclamation (eg, New Year's Eve, 1999). In Scotland, bank and public holidays fall on: New Year's Day (1 January) (or 2 January, if New Year's Day falls on a Sunday) 2 January (or 3 January, if 2 January falls on a Sunday) Good Friday Easter Monday the first Monday in May the last Monday in May the first Monday in August Christmas Day (or 26 December, if Christmas Day falls on a Sunday) 26 December (if it is not a Sunday). And in Northern Ireland: New Year's Day (1 January) St Patrick's Day (17 March) (or 18 Marc...

Key points It is unusual nowadays for an employer to dock an employee's wages or salary because of accidental damage to property or goods. In any event, an employer 's right to do so is strictly regulated by Part II (Protection of Wages ) of the Employment Rights Act 1996. Save for deductions in respect of income tax (PAYE) and National Insurance contributions (and other exceptions), an employer does not have the legal right to deduct money from an employee's wages or salary (or demand any payment) without that employee's express consent. If an employer wishes to deduct monies (or demand a payment from an employee) for bad workmanship: his (or her) right to do so and the reason for making that deduction must be clearly laid down in the employee's contract of employment (a copy of which must have previously been supplied to the employee before the incident that prompted the making of that deduction); alternatively, the employee must have previous...

Key points From time to time, the courts will serve so-called 'attachment of earnings' orders on employers requiring them to make periodical deductions from an employee's weekly or monthly pay cheque and to forward the money to the collecting officer of the court (section 6(1), Attachment of Earnings Act 1971). Similar legislation applies in Scotland and Northern Ireland. An attachment of earnings order may be made: by the High Court, to secure payments under a High Court maintenance order; by a county court, to secure payments under a High Court or a county court maintenance order or the payment of a judgement debt; or payments under an administration order; by a magistrates' court, to secure payments under a magistrates' court maintenance order or the payment of any sum adjudged to be paid by a conviction or the payment of any sum required to be paid by a legal aid contribution order (ibid. section 1). Note, however, that an attachment of e...

Key points The Advisory, Conciliation & Arbitration Service (referred to below as 'ACAS' or 'the Service') is an independent statutory body, first established on 1 January 1976 under section 1 of the (since repealed) Employment Protection Act 1975 and continued by section 247 of the Trade Union & Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. Note ACAS performs its functions (and those of its officers and servants) on behalf of the Crown, 'but not so as to make it subject to directions of any kind from any Minister of the Crown as to the manner in which it is to exercise its functions under any enactment' (ibid. section 247(3)). Constitution of ACAS ACAS is directed by a Council which consists of a Chairman and nine ordinary members appointed by the Secretary of State for Employment. Following consultations with the bodies concerned, three of the ordinary members are appointed from organisations representing employers and three fro...

Key points A job advertisement that indicates (or could be construed as indicating) an intention to discriminate against would-be job applicants on grounds of sex, marital status, gender reassignment, colour, race, nationality or national or ethnic origins, or on grounds of disability, is unlawful by virtue of section 38 of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, section 29 of the Race Relations Act 1976, and section 11 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Note It is not yet unlawful in the UK for an employer to discriminate against a job applicant (or existing worker) on grounds of age, political conviction, or religion - except in Northern Ireland where discrimination on grounds of religion or political opinion is outlawed by the Fair Employment & Treatment (Northern Ireland) Order 1998. However, the UK Government has three years within which to introduce legislation implementing the EU's Employment Directive 2000/78/EC, which prohibitions discrimination...

Key points From 6 April 2003, an employee who has been newly-matched with a child for adoption, or whose partner has been newly-matched with a child for adoption, or who is one of a couple who have been newly matched with a child for adoption (in each case, by an approved adoption agency), and who has been continuously employed by his or her employer for 26 weeks or more leading into the week in which notification of being matched occurred, has the right to take up to 26 weeks' ordinary adoption leave, followed immediately by up to 26 weeks' additional adoption leave. An employee with average earnings of £75 or more per week will qualify to be paid statutory adoption pay (SAP) during his or her ordinary adoption leave period. The relevant legislation is to be found in the Paternity & Adoption Leave Regulations 2002 which came into force on 8 December 2002. Note By definition, the right to adoption leave is not available to a step-father or mother who ...

Key points Under the common law, an employer cannot be compelled either to employ a particular job applicant or to reinstate or re-engage someone who has been dismissed. As Lord Davey remarked in Allen v Flood [1898] AC 1: 'An employer may refuse to employ [a workman] for the most mistaken, capricious, malicious or morally reprehensible motives that can be conceived, but the workman has no right of action against him.' And again: 'A man has no right to be employed by any particular employer, and has no right to any particular employment if it depends on the will of another.' Although an employer retains his (or her) common law right to pick and choose the people he employs, there may be a price to pay for exercising that right. In short, an employer can be ordered to pay compensation to a job applicant if a tribunal or court is satisfied that the employer acted unlawfully in refusing (or deliberately omitting) to employ the person concerned on grounds...