5.3a Purpose of legislation Flashcards
What does the Consumer Rights Act ensure?
The act ensures that customers receive goods and services of the right quality and gives them legal protection if standards are not met.
3 Consumer Rights Act requirements
The retailer is responsible for the safe delivery of the goods.
Customers have the legal right to reject goods within 30 days if there is something wrong with them.
After 30 days, customers have the right to a repair, replacement or refund for a faulty product.
What does the ‘Employment law’ ensure?
It ensures that employees’ rights are protected, but it also helps businesses to make sure that they are behaving in a legal way and will not be sued
The key areas of employment law:
- Recruitment
- Pay
- Discrimination
- Health and Safety
Employment law ensures that employers do the following things in a fair way:
- Advertising vacancies
- Selecting candidates
- Interviewing candidates
- Offering a candidate the job
- Preparing the employee to start their job
- Producing the employee’s contract of employment
- Conducting the employee’s induction programme once they start their job.
Employment law relating to pay
Businesses must pay a specified minimum rate to any apprentice employed by them in their first year. This rate is set by the UK government and changes each October. After their first year, the apprenticeship rate goes up to National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage, depending on the apprentice’s age.
National Minimum Wage:
Businesses must pay a specified minimum wage rate to any employee under the age of 25. These rates are set by the government and there are different levels of minimum wage depending on the employee’s age:
Under 18
18-20
21-24
National Living Wage
Businesses must pay a specified minimum wage to any employee over the age of 25. When the National Living Wage was introduced in 2016, it was set at £7.20 per hour.
Employment law - Discrimination:
Employment law also requires that employees are treated fairly and equally at work. This means that businesses can not discriminate against certain groups of people.
What must businesses do (related to discrimination)?
Businesses have to make adjustments for groups of people. For example, business have to make adjustments for some employees, such as a wheelchair user, to ensure that they have equal access to employment. They cannot refuse to give a job to a candidate because of their race, sexual orientation or any other protected characteristic.
What is the law that prevents discrimination?
Equality Act of 2010
What does Employment law - Health and Safety ensure?
It ensures that everyone in the workplace is responsible for looking after each other’s health and safety, and that it is the responsibility of both employers and employees to make sure the workplace is safe
What does the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HASAWA) require?
- Businesses provide safe places to work.
- Businesses maintain and provide suitable equipment for employees to use.
- Businesses provide training for employees in how to use suitable equipment and how to keep themselves safe.
- Employee’s report any accidents or near misses that they have a work.
- Employee’s report to their employer anything that they think might hurt them or someone else in the workplace
- Businesses report very serious accidents in the workplace to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and allow the HSE to investigate what happened if necessary.
- Businesses ensure the safety of anyone who comes into their premises.
- Businesses have public liability insurance, which covers them in case a member of the public has an accident on their premises.
What is legislation
The laws of a country which effects the way a business trades
2 key purposes of legislation
Protecting rights of consumers
Protecting rights of employees
