Employer Rights and Responsibilities in the UK

UK employers must ensure fair pay, safe working conditions, holidays, and non-discrimination under laws such as the Equality Act 2010. Key duties include minimum wage, itemised payslips, 48-hour week limits, rest breaks, and statutory leave/pay. For expert help, contact Croner on 01455 858 132.

All businesses operating within the UK must follow specific regulations that have been put in place to protect employees, workers, and their rights to fair treatment.

Employees and employers have rights and responsibilities towards each other. Employees must consider the health and safety of others and carry out their work accordingly.

As an employer, you’re responsible for ensuring your business follows the relevant regulations for your industry.

Whilst these regulations may vary depending on the type of job and the employment contract in place, they form the basis for fair treatment in the workplace.

Invariably, your responsibilities will extend to your workers':

• Pay.
• Working hours.
• Holiday entitlements.
• Health and safety support.

This article provides a comprehensive guide for small business employers, outlining the rights of their employees and workers, the responsibilities they hold to safeguard these rights in the UK, and their own entitlements as employers.

If you need immediate support in understanding what your rights are as an employer, or the rights of your workers, get in touch with one of Croner's employment law specialists on 01455 858 132.

• Statutory responsibilities of employers
• Health and Safety responsibilities of employers
• Responsibilities of employers: holiday leave, pay, and benefits
• Where to find information on employment rights and responsibilities
• Get expert advice

Statutory responsibilities of employers

When an individual officially becomes an employee of your business, they are entitled to specific statutory rights. These rights relate to health and safety, terms and conditions of employment, equal opportunities, pay and more.

You can learn more about these entitlements by reading our employee statutory rights guide. However, broadly speaking, employers must:

• Pay employees at least the national minimum wage.
• Provide staff with an itemised payslip (it should include a detailed breakdown of pay and deductions if any).
• Provide employees with a clean and safe work environment (including first aid equipment, protective clothing, safe drinking water etc).
• Offer employees a daily rest period of at least 20 minutes if they work longer than six hours a day.
• Keep to the 48-hour average working week (unless agreed upon by employer and employee in writing).
• Provide a certain amount of paid holiday each year.
• Give at least one week’s notice if an employee has been employed for longer than one month but less than two years. And two weeks’ notice if an employee has been with your company continuously for two years with an additional one week for every year after that, up to a maximum of 12 weeks after 12 years.
• Pay eligible workers statutory sick pay, statutory redundancy pay, statutory pay for maternity/paternity, adoption, and shared parental leave.

Health and Safety responsibilities of employers

Under UK law, employers are responsible for the health and safety of all staff members. That means protecting them from anything that could cause them harm in the workplace.

Employers' rights and responsibilities in the workplace

As an employer, you also have specific rights and responsibilities as an organisation. The following includes a non-exhaustive list of your core responsibilities as an employer:

• Conducting risk assessments to identify and address all workplace risks.
• Controlling any risks to injury or health and safety concerns that may arise from a risk assessment.
• Providing information on these risks and how you’re protecting employees from it.
• Instructing and training employees on how to deal with risks in your workplace.
• Consulting with staff members on health and safety issues.

Your responsibilities as an employer also extend to the prevention of discrimination in the workplace.

Responsibilities of employers: the prevention of discrimination

Under the Equality Act 2010, it is against the law to discriminate against individuals because of any of the Protected Characteristics, which are listed below:

• Gender reassignment.
• Being married or in a civil partnership.
• Being pregnant or on maternity leave.
• Race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin.
• Religion or belief.
• Sexual orientation.
• Disability.
• Age.
• Sex.

Employees that bring discrimination claims, such as harassment, or support in another staff member’s discrimination claim are protected from victimisation (i.e. being subjected to any detriment because of their disclosure).

Responsibilities of employers: holiday leave, pay, and benefits

The Employment Rights Act 1996 addresses workers’ rights regarding pay and the protection therein.

As well as providing a payslip that details calculations of payments and deductions, you should also provide:

• Statutory payments, such as Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) for eligible employees.
• Payment in lieu (upon terminations and only pay in lieu of notice if contractual right to do so applies).
• Holiday pay.
• Guaranteed pay, among others (but, only if the situation arises where statutory guaranteed pay is applicable, e.g. during a lay-off or short-term working if eligible).

Deductions to consider include:

• Income tax.
• National insurance.
• Pension (if applicable).
• Student loan (if applicable).

Where to find information on employment rights and responsibilities

Acas and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are reliable sources of information and advice on employment rights and responsibilities.

Where staff members believe you’re exposing them to risks or potential hazards, or where they’ve complained about health and safety risks in the workplace without a satisfactory response, they can raise concerns to the HSE or local authority.

Get expert advice

Croner's experts are on hand to help employers know their rights and responsibilities in detail.

Over the past 80 years, we've helped employers align their documentation and policies to these rights and responsibilities, helping them through the various employment law changes that take place on a yearly basis.

If you need immediate support, get in touch with one of our HR and Employment Law experts on 01455 858 132.