UK Labor Management QA

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Ms. Anny Lin, speaks both English and Chinese.
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LRC – United Kingdom Labor Regulations

LRC-CA-20.10
What must be included in the contents of a labor contract in the United Kingdom?

Evershine RD:

According to Employment Rights Act 1996, SS1, 138.
Employment contracts do not have to be in writing.
However, employers must provide a written document (known as the ‘principal statement’) to employees who will be working for the employer for more than one month on their first day of work.
The principal statement must include the following information:

•  names of employer and employee
•  date when employment began
•  the employee’s job title or description of work
•  where an employee or worker will be working and whether they might have to relocate
•  vacation entitlement
•  how long a job is expected to last
•  notice periods
•  details of eligibility for sick leave and pay
•  details of other types of paid leave, such as maternity leave and paternity leave
•  the duration and conditions of any probationary period
•  how much and how often the employee will get paid
•  the normal working hours and whether such hours may be variable; and
•  any obligatory training

LRC-CA-20.11

Do the United Kingdom arrange labor contract in the fixed term?
What should be the length of the labor contract in the United Kingdom?

Evershine RD:

Yes.

The use of successive fixed-term contracts is limited to a total 4 years unless the use of additional fixed-term contracts is justified on objective grounds.
If a fixed-term contract is renewed after the 4-year period, it will be treated as a contract for an indefinite period.

LRC-CA-20.20
What is the minimum age for hiring new employees in the United Kingdom?

Evershine RD:

According to Children and Young Persons Act 1933, SS 23, 24.
Children under the age of 16 are not allowed to work in a full-time job.
Employees who are aged 18 or above are afforded the same rights as adults.

LRC-CA-20.40

Is it a requirement for employer in the United Kingdom to conduct a pre-employment background check?

Evershine RD:

Under the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996 and the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 employers must ensure that new employees are allowed to work in the U.K.
Businesses can be fined up to 20,000 pounds per illegal worker if they cannot show evidence that they checked an employee’s right to work.

LRC-CA-20.50
Is the Non-Competition indemnity clause in labor contract in the United Kingdom has legal effect?

Evershine RD:

According to The Trade Secrets Regulations, 2018.
Restrictive covenants are valid only if they protect the employer’s legitimate business interests, such as preventing employees from joining a competitor for a certain period.

If the length and scope of the restrictions are not reasonable, the covenant may be declared unenforceable by a tribunal or court, in which case the employee will be free to accept any offer of employment.
Generally, the more narrowly a restrictive covenant is drafted, the more likely it is to be enforceable.
British courts are unlikely to uphold a restriction of more than 6 months after termination.

LRC-CA-40.05
What are the regulations on Gender Discrimination in employment specifically for female workers in the United Kingdom?

Evershine RD:

According to Equality Act 2010, SS 4-19.
It is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against employees or applicants for employment based on gender.

LRC-CA-50.10
Can the employer in the United Kingdom collect, or process data transmitted by employees over the internet?

Evershine RD:

The Human Rights Act of 1998, affords private employees a legal remedy to challenge abusive monitoring practices, and the Regulation of Investigative Powers Act makes it a criminal offense to intercept data without authorization, though employers are permitted to intercept e-mails and to monitor Internet access as long as both the sender and the receiver agree to it.

LRC-CA-60.10
What are the regulations on working hours in the United Kingdom?

Evershine RD:

According to Working Time Regulations 1998, No. 1833, SS 4-12.
The maximum workweek is 48 hours averaged over a period of 17 weeks.

LRC-CA-60.30
What are the regulations on overtime hours in the United Kingdom?
What is the overtime premium rate in the United Kingdom?

Evershine RD:

Employees are not required to pay employees a premium for overtime work.
The only requirement is that an employee’s average pay for total hours worked not fall below the national minimum wage.
An employer may give an employee compensatory time off instead of wages for overtime, which is known as “time off in lieu.”

LRC-CA-60.50
Is it common to pay 13^th month’s salary in the United Kingdom?

Evershine RD:

Bonus arrangements typically are agreed in the contract between the employer and the employee.
Bonuses can be entirely discretionary, but employers must be careful not to allocate them in a discriminatory manner.

LRC-CA-70.10
What are the regulations on general leave policy for employees in the United Kingdom?

Evershine RD:

Under the Working Time Regulations, full-time employees are entitled to a minimum of 28 days of paid annual leave each year.
Unless the employment contract states otherwise, the annual leave entitlement includes bank holidays.
Vacation pay is usually based on the average pay over 52 weeks prior to the vacation, or the number of weeks of employment if the worker has been with the employer for less than 52 weeks.
Employees start to accrue annual leave from the start of their employment. During the first year of employment, annual leave accrues at the rate of one-twelfth of a full year’s entitlement at the beginning of each month.

LRC-CA-70.20
What are the public holidays in the United Kingdom?
What is the overtime premium rate during public holidays in the United Kingdom?

Evershine RD:

England and Wales recognize 8 public holidays, also known as bank holidays, while Scotland recognizes 9 and Northern Ireland recognizes 10.
The 7 holidays that are collectively recognized by England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland are as follows:

•  New Year’s Day
•  Good Friday
•  Early May Bank Holiday (early May, precise date varies year to year)
•  Spring bank holiday (late May, precise date varies year to year)
•  Summer bank holiday (late August, precise date varies year to year)
•  Christmas Day
•  Boxing Day

The additional public holiday recognized by England and Wales is Easter Monday, the Monday immediately after Easter Sunday.
The additional public holidays recognized by Scotland are:

•  The second day of the new Gregorian Calendar year
•  Nov. 30: St. Andrew’s Day

The additional public holidays recognized by Northern Ireland are:

•  March 17: St. Patrick’s Day
•  Easter Monday, the Monday immediately after Easter Sunday
•  July 12: Battle of the Boyne (Orangemen’s Day)

In the U.K., bank holidays do not have to be given as paid leave.
Employers can choose to include bank holidays as part of a worker’s statutory annual leave.
When employees work on a national holiday, they have no statutory right to extra pay.

LRC-CA-70.30
What is the maternity leave policy for female employees in the United Kingdom?

Evershine RD:

According to Employment Rights Act 1996, ch. 18 SS 71-75; Children and Families Act 2014, Part 7; Maternity Pay and Leave.
Pregnant employees are entitled to 52 weeks’ maternity leave.
The first 26 weeks is known as ‘Ordinary Maternity Leave’ (OML), the last 26 weeks as ‘Additional Maternity Leave’ (AML).
Although employees do not have to take all 52 weeks of their maternity entitlement, they must take 2 weeks’ leave once the baby is born.

The earliest that leave can be taken is 11 weeks before the expected week of childbirth.
Pregnant employees are entitled to receive up to 39 weeks of statutory maternity pay (SMP) if they have worked for the employer for at least 26 weeks and up to the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth and must have given the correct notice and proof of pregnancy.

For the first 6 weeks, statutory maternity pay is payable at 90% of the employee’s average weekly gross pay.
For the remaining 33 weeks, statutory maternity pay is payable at a basic weekly amount or 90% of the employee’s average weekly gross pay, whichever is lower.
Effective starting April 3, 2022, the basic weekly amount is 156.66 pounds.

LRC-CA-70.40
What is the paternity leave policy for male employees in the United Kingdom?

Evershine RD:

According to Employment Rights Act 1996, ch. 18 SS 80A-80E; Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay (Weekly Rates) Regulations 2002.
Eligible employees can currently take 1- or 2-weeks’ paid paternity leave within 8 weeks (56 days) of a child’s birth or adoption.
The leave must be taken consecutively and cannot start before the birth.
To be eligible for paternity leave, an employee must be one of the following:

•  the father
•  the husband or partner of the mother (or adopter) – this includes same-sex partners
•  the child’s adopter
•  the intended parent if having a child through a surrogacy arrangement

Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) is payable at a basic weekly amount or 90% of the employee’s average weekly gross pay, whichever is lower.
The basic weekly amount is 156.66 pounds.

LRC-CA-70.50
What are the provisions on sick leave, bereavement leave and personal leave for employees in the United Kingdom?

Evershine RD:

Sick Leave

According to Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992, S 151.
Effective from April 6, 2022, to April 5, 2023, employees generally are entitled to statutory sick pay of 99.35 pounds per full week of 7 days, for up to 28 weeks.

Parental Bereavement Leave

According to Parental Bereavement Leave Act, 2018, S 80EA; Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay Consultation.
Employees are eligible for up to 2 weeks of leave following the loss of a child under the age of 18 or a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Employees with 26 weeks’ continuous service are entitled to paid leave at the statutory rate and other employees are entitled to unpaid leave.
The leave can be taken up to 56 weeks from the date of the death of the child.

Compassionate Leave

There is no entitlement to compassionate leave, although it may be provided by an employment contract.
An employee is also entitled to a reasonable time off to deal with an emergency involving a dependant, such as a spouse, partner, child, parent, or friend or family member who relies on the employee for care, which is usually 1 or 2 days.
This leave may be paid or unpaid, depending on the employment contract.

Other leave

An employee is allowed to take leave for public duties such as jury duty. There is no entitlement to paid leave, although it may be provided by an employment contract.

LRC-CA-70.60

What are the regulations on pension benefits and social security insurance benefits for employees in the United Kingdom?

Evershine RD:

According to National Employment Savings trust; National Insurance.
All employers are required to automatically enroll their employees into a pension plan.
Employers can use the independently run, government-backed defined contribution plan, National Employment Savings Trust (NEST), or their own plan, which could be either a defined contribution plan or a defined benefit plan.
The employer is primarily responsible for the deduction of National Insurance contributions (NICs) from salary or wages through the PAYE (Pay As You Earn) system and for the payment of these sums to Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
NICs help to fund many benefits and services including the National Health Service, state-provided pensions, statutory leave benefits and workers’ compensation.

LRC-CA-70.70
What are the regulations on Workers’ Compensation for employees in the United Kingdom?

Evershine RD:

According to Employers’ Liability Act 1969; Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit.
Employers must maintain insurance against liability for bodily injury or disease sustained by employees in the course of their employment.
The policy must cover the entity for at least 5 million pounds.

LRC-CA-80.05
Can the employee in United Kingdom join a labor union?

Evershine RD:

According to European Convention on Human Rights, Nov. 4, 1950, art. 11.
Employees have the right to join or not join a trade union, decide to leave, or remain a member of a trade union and belong to more than one trade union.

LRC-CA-80.06
How to handle labor disputes in the United Kingdom?

Evershine RD:

According to Trade Union and Labour Relations Act, 1992, S 199; Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures.
The U.K.’s Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) has developed a Code of Practice that provides basic practical guidance to employers, employees, and their representatives for handling disciplinary and grievance situations in the workplace.
Collective agreements tend to contain lengthy grievance procedures, which can include consultation and/or arbitration, that must be exhausted before matters can be taken further.

LRC-CA-90.10

What are the regulations on workplace safety and health for employees in the United Kingdom?

Evershine RD:

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, ch.37, SS 2, 37.
An employer is under a general duty to guarantee the safety of all employees and can be held liable for accidents caused by employees acting in the course of their employment.
Employers must maintain insurance against liability for bodily injury or disease sustained by employees in the course of their employment and are required to assess risks to the health and safety of workers and to keep a record of these assessments.

LRC-CA-100.10
What are the circumstances that an employer can terminate an employee in the United Kingdom?

Evershine RD:

When terminating a worker’s employment, employers are urged to follow the ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) Code of Practice.
Failure to follow the code does not automatically result in unfair dismissal, but noncompliance can be considered by an employment tribunal in determining whether a dismissal is fair.

An employee who has been unfairly dismissed has the right to request reinstatement, although in practice this form of redress is rarely granted by employment tribunals.

LRC-CA-100.11

What is the notification period for terminating an employee in the United Kingdom?
How much is the severance pay?

Evershine RD:

Under the Employment Rights Act 1996.
Employees who have completed 1 month’s continuous service are entitled to a minimum 1 weeks’ notice of termination.
After 2 years’ service, employees are entitled to 1 weeks’ notice per year of service up to a maximum 12 weeks’ notice after 12 years of service.

Employment contracts may contain more generous provisions, and U.K. employers often agree to give employees at least 1 months’ notice of termination from the start of employment and senior employees between 3- and 6-months’ notice.
Employees also have a right to compensation if they are dismissed because of redundancy, the amount ranging from half a week’s pay to one and a half weeks’ pay for each year of service.
Under the Employment Rights Act 1966, SS 22, 155.
Compensation may be payable to employees who have more than one year of continuous service at their date of dismissal if they are unfairly dismissed.
If employees are found to have been unfairly dismissed, they may be compensated by a basic award and a compensatory award.
The basic award is calculated on the same basis as a redundancy payment.
The maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal is the lower of 12 months’ salary and 93,878 pounds.
The limit on a week’s pay for the purposes of calculating statutory redundancy payments and the basic award for unfair dismissal is 571 pounds.

LRC-CA-100.12
What is the reporting requirement for employer in the United Kingdom to notify the termination of employees to competent authority?

Evershine RD:

When employees separate from employment, their employer must provide them with a copy of Form P45, Details of Employee Leaving Work.
Form P45 details for the recipient employee the amounts and types of tax the employee paid on income from employment during the tax year for which the form was issued.
The employer must provide Part 1 of the form to HMRC; an employee must provide Parts 2 and 3 to the employee’s new employer, or to Jobcentre Plus if not working; and the employee retains Part 1A.

In conjunction with Form P45, any remaining amount of income from employment not already paid to the separated employee must be paid to the employee, with PAYE deductions applied to the amount and reported on the next Full Payment Submission (FPS) required to be transmitted to HMRC.

LRC-CA-100.20
What are the regulations on mass layoffs in the United Kingdom?

Evershine RD:

According to Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, S 188.
When proposing to make 20 or more employees redundant at one establishment within a period of 90 days, an employer must:

•  consult with any recognized trade union or other elected employee representatives
•  start consultation in good time—at least 30 or 45 days before the first dismissal takes effect depending on the number of proposed redundancies
•  consult on ways of avoiding dismissals, reducing the numbers to be made redundant and mitigating the effect of the dismissals
•  disclose in writing to the appropriate representative certain information concerning the proposed dismissals
•  notify the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills at least 30 or 45 days in advance of the first dismissal taking effect, depending on the number of proposed redundancies.

LRC-CA-100.30
What is the time limit for employer in the United Kingdom to pay employees upon termination?

Evershine RD:

On termination, employees are entitled to all wages due through the last day of work or to payment in lieu of those wages.

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