Employment law is a critical consideration for all companies. However, it can be particularly challenging for start-ups and entrepreneurs. New businesses that are expanding and taking on employees for the first time may not be aware of all the requirements relating to employment.
One area of employment law that has seen significant changes lately is the Employment Rights Act. In this blog article, we’ll outline some of the primary changes and how we can help to ensure your employment practices and contracts remain compliant.
What is the Employment Rights Act?
The Employment Rights Act covers the treatment of employees in the workplace and covers areas like redundancy, working contracts, unfair dismissal, wage protection, suspensions, flexible working and termination of employment.
Why do I need to know about changes to the Employment Rights Act?
The Employment Rights Act is an important piece of legislation for any business with employees. Changes to section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 2010, which require employers to provide new information to employees and workers under their contracts, have been in place for over a year. If you are hiring, it is a good time to make sure that your employment contracts are compliant and up to date.
What has changed and how could these changes affect my business?
Although some of the changes are straightforward, some have caused difficulties. For example, employers must now provide details of any training entitlement that they provide, which can be cumbersome if there will be different training requirements for different roles, or where the employer envisages their requirements changing over time.
Other changes include a requirement for employers to set out details of all of the benefits they provide. It is likely to be impractical to set out all the details of all the benefits (many of which are subject to terms and conditions), so employers may wish to take a practical approach here and include general wording around the types of benefits available instead.
Employers are now also required to set out all types of paid leave (including the new parental bereavement leave), details of normal working days and hours, and whether such hours or days may be varied, along with details of any probationary period.
These terms must now be provided to both workers and employees on (or before) the first day they start work.
How Seven Legal can help you respond to the changes to the Employment Rights Act
If your employment contracts need a review in light of the changes to the Employment Rights Act, we can help. We can undertake document audits of employment contracts, consultancy agreements, staff handbooks and any other employee agreements you may have. We’ll review your current wording and check it complies with the changes to the Employment Rights Act. Where there are issues, we’ll help you to put things right.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss further, please get in touch.
Help with your employment contracts, agreements and policies
These recent changes to the Employment Rights Act are just one example of how legislation relating to your business and employees can change. It also demonstrates how important it is to stay up-to-date with legal developments and how working with a legal consultancy could benefit your business.
With our stage-specific legal advice, we help to protect high-growth businesses and the people they hire. We specialise in providing businesses with legal advice on matters like employment contracts, redundancies and restructures, HR policies and procedures and agreements with contractors and subcontractors.
If you have a legal question on employment, please get in touch with our lawyers today.
