Employer Rights and Responsibilities in the UK

All businesses operating within the UK must follow specific regulations put in place to protect employees and their employees’ rights to fair treatment.

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

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

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

Your responsibilities extend to your staff’s pay, working hours, holiday entitlements, employment contracts, health and safety support and more.

To help you get all of that right, this guide serves as a guide for small business employer's rights, rights and responsibilities in the UK.

If you need immediate support in knowing what your employer rights and responsibilities are, get in touch with one of Croner's experts on 0800 141 3938.

Statutory Responsibilities and rights of Employees and employers

As soon as a member of staff begins working in a particular company, they’re entitled to certain statutory rights.

These rights relate to health & safety, terms and conditions of employment, equal opportunities, pay and more.

You 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, 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 and confirmed in writing).
• Provide a certain amount of paid holiday each year (depending on employment type: full-time or part-time).
• Give at least one-week of dismissal notice if an employee has been with your company 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.
• Offer eligible workers statutory sick pay, statutory redundancy pay, statutory pay for maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave.

You can check out the Acas site for a complete list of your responsibilities to your employees.

Health & Safety responsibilities of employers

Under British law, you’re responsible for the health and safety of all staff members. That means protecting them from anything that could cause them harm.

Employers rights and responsibilities in the workplace includes:

• Conducting risk assessments to identify and address all 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.

Responsibilities of employers: Discrimination

Under the Equality Act 2010, it’s against the law to discriminate against individuals because of any of the protected characteristics.

This includes:

• 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, complain about harassment, or support in another staff member’s discrimination claim are protected from victimisation (being subjected to a detriment)

Responsibilities of employers: Pay & Benefits

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

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

• Statutory payments.
• Payment in Lieu.(upon terminations and only pay in lieu of notice if contractual right to do so)
• Holiday pay.
• Guarantee pay among others.(only if the situation arises where statutory guarantees pay is applicable e.g. during 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 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 employees' health risks in the workplace without a satisfactory response, they can raise concerns to the HSE or local authority.

Expert advice

Croner's experts are on hand to help employers know what their rights are, health and safety responsibilities are to their workforce.

Over the past 80 years, we've helped employers align their documentation, policies and helped 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 0800 141 3938.