Employment Law
There is a considerable amount of detail concerning the regulation of employment
8.1 Discrimination
There are two major Acts that protect Scottish employees from unfair from discriminating in terms of sax, race or marriage: Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (SDA) and Race Relations Act 1976 (RRA). The Equal Pay Act 1970 covers the issue of fair payment to men and women in terms of the employment.
The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 copes with discrimination of disabled people. Part I of the Act identifies disability as ‘a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities’. The employers are responsible to make adjustments to the working environment so that it fits the needs of a disabled worker.
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The aim of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 is to ensure the ex-offenders to obtain a job and become a law-abiding member of a society. The Act contains the details about the length of offenders conviction, after which an employer cannot refuse taking the applicant for work, referring to the offense committed (Townshend_Smith, 2015).
Discrimination is illegal if it is based on a person’s sex, race, marriege or disability. In case, the employer displays the discriminative attitude while hiring or treating the employee, he is obliged to pay fines, for example see Appendix 2.
8.2 Contract of employment
The contract of employment is arranged when the employee accepts the job offer. This contract is of primary importance for both parties, therefore, negotiations are held in order to settle terms and conditions. If the contract is not written the employee must be provided with the statement of most important terms of the employment that are the following:
Name of the employee and the employer
The hiring date of the employee
Payment rate, or the way it is calculated (commission, percentage of sales)
Payment intervals
Working hours, overtime payment
Holidays information
Terms in case of the illness of the employee
These list is provided in section I of the Employment Rights Act 1996.
8.3 Duties of the Employer
The duty to pay wages is the common duty of the employer. Every employee working 8 or more hours has to obtain a receipt for the payment before its commitment. It has to provide the information about the net income of the employee, gross amount and any additional legal deductions and the purpose of the deduction (Townshend_Smith, 2015).
The duty to respect means fair treatment to all the employees. The failure to implement this duty may cause the dismissal of the stuff and poor organization image in opinion of the employees.
The duty to take care of the employee is a common law . An employer is responsible for any injuries of his employee at the working place.
The employer must follow the law and is personally responsible for updating the knowledge on relevant litigations concerning working conditions, employee treatment etc.
8.4 The Working Time Regulations 1998
The implementation of the EU Working Time Directive in the Scottish Law provide an information on the maximum week working hours – 48 (overtime included). In addition, a week
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is considered to be a 7 day period rather than time from Monday to Sunday. Employer has to keep track of all employees working hours (Townshend_Smith, 2015).
8.5 Health and Safety
The aim of the Safety and Work Act 1974 is to increase the employer awareness of his employees protection and care. In addition to that, this Act is the part of the Criminal Law, thus penalties are undertaken for those who do not follow the regulations. Two bodies: Health and Safety Commission (HSC) and Health and Safety Executive (HSE), whose duties is to promote the regulations of the Act and enforce its legal functions. Some of the general duties of the employers according to the Act:
Providing information, instruction, and training to ensure the employee awareness of safety working condition
Provision of safe access to the working facilities
Prepare a written statement on the safety policies of the organization
Provide a proper supervision to the employees