When you return to work, you can request part-time or flexible hours if you wish. Your employer is not obliged to grant it, but he must provide a good reason if he refuses it. Work-to-rule actions originate in countries and industries where participation in traditional strikes is illegal in some sectors, but workers wanted to show their dissatisfaction with the policies implemented by their employer. The employer must ensure that his employee does not work more than 48 hours per week on average in both workplaces. Parents and intended parents have additional rights in the UK workplace. If you are pregnant, you have the right to take paid leave for prenatal appointments. Your partner is also entitled to paid leave to accompany you, although many agency workers have been working at work for 12 weeks to get it. Workers are a little more blurred. In the United Kingdom, the term “employee” does not include contractors, but it does include some people who fall between the definitions of employee and contractor. Gig economy companies like Uber are currently fighting court decisions that classify their drivers as employees, for example.
If the business you work for is acquired or merged with another company, your rights under your employment contract will be automatically transferred under the Business Transfer (Employment Protection) Regulations 2006 (TUPE). However, TUPE does not require the new employer to adapt a company pension plan. In the UK, workers pay Class 1 (automatically deducted from the salary of anyone earning more than £184 per week) and Class 3 (voluntary top-up payments) contributions. In the UK, the self-employed make Class 2 and Class 4 payments. The current rates for Class 1 contributions are 12% for earnings between £184 and £967 per week and 2% for earnings above £967 per week. Teachers in England and Wales are known to take similar action – in 2012, hundreds of teachers refused to perform all non-teaching duties during a dispute over pay, pensions and workload. The civil penalty can be up to £20,000 per illegal worker,[4] and/or a criminal sanction with an unlimited fine or imprisonment for five years. Public holidays – 28 working days Public holidays must be scheduled as the legal minimum.
Normally, the 28 days include statutory holidays. In some cases, customs and practices may require longer days off (for example, 30 days per year or 33 days per year). Maternity/adoption/paternity/parental leave: Maternity leave of up to 52 weeks is allowed in the UK, where the employee is entitled to statutory maternity benefit (SMP) for 39 weeks. The SMP is equal to 90% of the employee`s average weekly wage for the first 6 weeks, followed by the prescribed rate or the earnings-related rate, whichever is less, for the remaining 33 weeks. The prescribed rate is currently £151.97 per week and the earnings-related rate is 90% of the employee`s normal weekly income. Please note that in the UK, a pregnant woman may take a full year off and then be eligible to return to work in the same/similar role. The same applies to adoption leave. Discrimination – If an employee is successful in a discrimination action (e.g., because of gender, race, age or disability), a court award is unlimited and can therefore be very costly.
Unlike wrongful dismissal complaints, the employee does not need to have worked for the employer for a certain period of time to complain of discrimination (i.e. complaints of discrimination can be filed before recruitment (during the recruitment process) or from the first day of employment. This week, Sam`s manager asks him to work 55 hours (7 hours more than usual). The demand is due to the fact that the company is barely staffed. Sam agrees to work overtime. Sometimes the phrase “slow down the rulebook” is used in a slightly different sense from “strike work”: the former involves the application of letter rules, which are usually set aside or interpreted less literally, to increase efficiency; They refrain from activities that are routine but not prescribed by the rule or job description, but the terms may be used interchangeably. Accident, Health and Safety Law and Working Conditions Sir John Donaldson described it as a decision “to give the rules a meaning that no reasonable person could give them and on which to work”. [3] Ultimately, understanding work-to-rule measures is essential to dealing with them effectively and compassionately. It`s not a tool that should be used lightly, and if it`s threatened in your business, it`s a sign that employer-employee relationships have deteriorated significantly.
By encouraging open communication with your employees, you can ensure that following the rules is never on the table. In the past, some entrepreneurs and businesses have tried to avoid employee classifications by using personal services companies or PSCs as intermediaries. The new regulations have largely closed this loophole by transferring responsibility for classification corrections from workers to employers. British labour law distinguishes between “employees” and “workers”. Disciplinary and grievance procedures – The company should have a disciplinary procedure (to deal with any performance or behaviour issues that arise) and a grievance procedure (to deal with employee complaints), and the rules governing them are complex and change frequently. Disciplinary and grievance procedures must comply with the ACAS Code of Conduct for Discipline and Complaints. Temporary agency workers have the same fundamental rights as the right to minimum wage and public holiday pay. However, you do not have specific rights such as maternity leave. If you work through an agency, you probably won`t get a full employment contract, but you should get a written declaration of employment that lists key details and conditions.
Compliance with the rules of zeal can be misinterpreted as malicious, even if it is only a suppression of goodwill, for example: if employees insist on taking all legally justified breaks or refuse a request for unpaid overtime. [4] If you feel discriminated against in the workplace, you should first try to clarify this with your employer. You can talk to HR if your employer has one. If that doesn`t work, you can take legal action to an employment court. You can also contact Citizens Advice or Acas. Regular overtime is included on average, and workers cannot decide on this limit. Pensions: Companies are required to have contributory pension schemes. Employers are required to automatically enrol their eligible employees in a qualified occupational pension scheme and to contribute to their employees` pensions in each pay period.
There are minimum pension contributions, but many companies offer higher contributions to their employees. Check out our quick guide “Occupational pension plans – Automatic enrolment”. For most of us, this commitment to business success is rewarded with gratitude from our bosses and hopefully triumph in every project we`ve worked on. For the most part, it is also us who are driven as employees, as opposed to bosses who tell us that meeting our contractual obligations is simply not enough. If you find yourself in a situation where industrial action is possible, invest in a professional and external mediator. Emotions can be very strong during a strike or work action, which can prevent a logical conclusion. By bringing in someone from outside your company, you increase the chances that the action will be resolved as quickly as possible. Different working time regulations apply to persons under 18 years of age. Pregnant workers also enjoy better health and safety rights, such as protection from long working hours or physically demanding work. If you are breastfeeding or within 26 weeks of giving birth, you will continue to have these rights. Since then, there have been a number of famous actions of the work-to-rule. These have mainly taken place in public services such as the NHS, as there are restrictions on the type of strike action they are allowed to participate in.
Different travel rules apply to people without a fixed place of work.