Week 9 - Employment Contracts Flashcards
Video 2 - Employment Contracts
What’re employment contracts?
Contracts that set out legally binding obligations of both parties (employee and employer).
Contracts can be express or implied - implied by courts or statutes.
What’re express terms?
Terms specifically agreed between the parties. Can be written or verbal.
What does ERA 1996 say about written statement of particulars?
Employers must provide a written statement of particulars within 2 months of commencement.
- Date of commencement
- Pay rates + interval
- Job title
- Hours/place of work
- Length of notice period
- Details of disciplinary and grievance procedures
How must changes to terms be notified?
Via written statement within a month.
Name 2 common law duties of employees
Duty to obey lawful and reasonable orders
- Pepper V Webb 1968 - Gardener refused to plant flowers where instructed
Duty of mutual cooperation (reasonable manner to)
- Secretary of State for Employment v ASLEF (1972) – “Work to rule” considered as wilful obstruction
Duty to exercise reasonable skill and care
- Lister v Romford Ice & Cold Storage Ltd (1972) – Employee ran over colleague with a fork-lift truck!
Duty to provide honest and faithful service
- Sinclair v Neighbour (1967) – Employee secretly borrowed money from the till and later repaid it
Duty to render personal service
- Employees must not delegate work without the express or implied permission to do so
Duty to pay “reasonable” remuneration
- Only applies if no express provision
Duty to provide a safe system of work
- Latimer v AEC Ltd (1953) – Factory flooded, employer acted reasonably to prevent slippage
Duty to provide work
- William Hill Organisation v Tucker (1998)
Duty to provide a reference
- Spring v Guardian Assurance (1994) – reference given was “so strikingly bad as to amount to…the ‘kiss of death’ to his career in insurance”
Name 2 terms implied by statute
Employment Rights Act (1996)
- Protection against unfair and wrongful dismissal, a right to redundancy pay, minimum notice period, sick pay etc
Health & Safety at Work Act (1974)
- “…duty of every employer to ensure, so far as isreasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his/her employees“:
Provision and maintenance of equipment
Provision of training and information re: safety
Provision of safe working environment etc etc
Working Time Regulations (1998)
- Maximum hours of work = 48 per week
Right to four weeks paid leave per annum
Right to one day off each week
Equal Pay Act (1970)
- Implies an equality clause into all employment contracts re opposite sex doing different jobs of equal value
National Minimum Wage Act (1998)
Name 2 of the protected characteristics in the Equality Act 2010
Disability
Gender reassignment
Marriage and civil partnership
Pregnancy and maternity
Race
Religion or belief
Sex
Sexual orientation
What’s vicarious liability?
When an employer can be liable for the acts or omissions of its employees, provided it can be shown that they took place in the course of their employment
