The Contract of Employment
We have already seen that a contract need not be written. It can be oral. While it is not mandatory to have an employer/employee contract in written form, most employees in UK have a written contract detailing the relationship requirements between the employer and employee. There is no legal standard employee contract format in the UK. There can be different formats. Some of them are letters. What is important is that the contract has to define the contractual relationship – with the main terms and conditions of their employment.
Contractual terms in an employment contract
- Express terms’ – specific terms that are usually put in writing, for example the employee’s pay or working hours
- Implied terms‘ – for example, things that are so obvious they do not need to be written and terms that come from employment law
- Incorporated terms’ – these form part of the contract even though they come from other sources, for example a staff handbook or an agreement affecting many employees
Rights during employment
- The right to practice one’s profession and to carry out any lawful occupation, trade or business.
- The right to just and favorable conditions of work, in particular, safe and healthy working conditions.
- The right to equal pay for equal work without discrimination.
- The right to form and join trade unions and other labor organizations.
- The right to a fair hearing in the event of disciplinary hearings.
- The right to non-discrimination on the basis of sex, race, colour, ethnic origin, tribe, birth, creed or religion, social or economic standing, political opinion or disability.
- The right to severance Pay /Allowance. (It is money paid to an employee when their employment ends abruptly in instances such as early ending of the work agreement or at retirement.)
- The right to gratuity (It’s a sum of money given by the employer to their employee for the services they have offered throughout their period of employment. It is usually paid at the time of retirement but it can be paid before, provided certain conditions are met.
- The right to pay or salary.
- The right to unlawful termination.
- The right to compensation in the event of injury at work or during work.
- The right to social security (Payment of NSSF funds).
- The right to rest and reasonable working hours. This right entails annual leave or paid leave, maternity leave, paternity leave, public holidays, as well as, a day’s rest upon six consecutive days of work. Nonetheless, except for employees that work in shifts, an employee is to work not exceeding ten hours per day or fifty six hours per week.
- Prohibition of sexual harassment.
Termination of the contract
A contract of full-term employment can end before its expiry by either the employeeor the employer expressing that they do not want to continue with the relationship under their contract. Either of the parties should follow the contract requirements and give due notice to the other party. The purpose of the notice is to enable both parties to arrange to get a replacement for this employee. In UK, dismissal may give rise to a number of different claims under the law.
The main claims that may arise due to the termination include:
wrongful dismissal; unfair dismissal;
- claim for a redundancy payment;
- claim for failure to give employee written reasons for dismissal;
- claim for discrimination (sex; race; disability; religion or belief)
Wrongful dismissal
Employee can claim for breach of contract called “wrongful dismissal” in
the Employment Tribunal or law courts in UK, when terminated without giving appropriate period of notice or making a payment in lieu of the notice. In some countries the Labour Office (otherwise the Employment Tribunal) has been made the first place to go for adjudication but if the remedy is not agreed next is court.
Unfair dismissal
Employees on fixed term contracts who have been on the job for one or more years can bring claims for unfair dismissal. Employees with less than a year can claim unfair dismissal if the dismissal is related to pregnancy, health and safety, or the employee is being victimized for having made a protected disclosure
Business transfer and TUPE
In the UK, TUPE contains far-reaching rules on the protection of employee’s rights on transfer of a business. The Transfer of Undertakings (protection of Employment) Regulations 1981 (TUPE), which gave effect to the UK’s obligations under EC law to implement the EC Council Directive 77/187 gave effect to the EC, provides protection to employees when the business they are working for is sold or transferred. In brief EC Council Directive 77/187 is called Acquired Rights Directive. UK government introduced some changes to TUPE effective April 2006. TUPE guarantees automatic transfer of employment.
