When hiring, it’s obviously important to find the best person for the job. But you should also check you’re following the law on discrimination. It’s usually against the law to discriminate against a job applicant based on any of the following, known as ‘protected characteristics’: age disability race gender reassignment marriage and civil partnership pregnancy and maternity […]
Workers aged under 18 have extra rights to protect them because of their age. Whether they’re an employee or worker can also affect their rights. Working hours and rest breaks for workers aged 16 or 17 By law, workers aged 16 or 17 must not work more than 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week. […]
The working time regulations law covers: the maximum hours an employee can work each week how much rest they should get Certain types of work do not have to follow all of the regulations due to the nature of the job. Jobs with some exceptions to the working time regulations These types of work are […]
If an employee has a fixed place of work (such as an office they go to every day), it’s up to the employer to decide whether travel time between home and work counts as working time. An employee should check their employment contract if they’re not sure. Usually, an employee’s regular commute to and from […]
Types of rest break Breaks during the working day An employee has the right to uninterrupted rest breaks of at least 20 minutes if they work more than 6 hours in a day. The employee has the right to take this break: away from their workstation (for example, away from their desk) at a time […]
Not sure what the maximum working hours is for an employee? By law an employee cannot work more than an average 48 hours a week unless either of the following applies: they agree to work more hours (known as ‘opting out’ of the weekly limit) they do a job not covered by the law on working hours (sometimes known […]
By law, your employee must tell you the following information no later than 15 weeks before the date the baby is due: that they’re expecting a child how much paternity leave they plan to take – by law they can take up to 2 weeks the date they want to start their leave Your employee may have […]
Returning to work after maternity leave has ended. The employee’s right to return to the same job depends on how much leave they’ve taken. They’ve taken up to 26 weeks’ maternity leave They have the right to return to the same job. They’ve taken more than 26 weeks’ maternity leave They have the right to return to […]
Managing Attendance during pregnancy. If an employee cannot come to work because of a pregnancy-related illness, they should: report in sick in the usual way get their usual sick pay Pregnancy-related illness can include: morning sickness (nausea and vomiting) tiredness headache backache bleeding If you’re not sure whether an illness is pregnancy related, you can ask […]
Planning maternity leave Before maternity leave starts, you should agree with your employee the best way to keep in touch about important changes or news at work. This includes arranging how you’ll keep in touch (for example, by email). By law you must tell them about: promotion or other job opportunities redundancies any reorganisation that […]