1. EMPLOYMENT LAW

2. Read the short introductory paragraph and answer the questions
Employment law regulates the rights and duties of employers and employees. Its main aim is to protect workers’ rights and ensure that they are treated fairly by the employer and provided adequate working conditions.
1. Think of ways employment relations are regulated by the law. Why do you think the state should protect employees? What kinds of dangers could employees be exposed to in an employment relationship?
2. What forms of employment can you think of?

3. Legal Regulation of Employment
In many countries employment relations are governed by comprehensive labour codes.
In the UK, sources of employment law include statutes, such as the Employment Act (2008), Employment Relations Act (2004), Equality Act (2010), etc.
Statutory rights include the minimum wage, the right to equal pay for like work, non-discrimination, the right to sick and parental leave, the right to be represented by a trade union, etc.
Case law still provides numerous tests for determining employee status (full- time, part-time, occasional work, agency work) where a clear, written contractual specification is lacking.

4. Employment contract
regulates the relationship, rights and obligations of a particular employee with regard to the employer.
an imbalance of bargaining power between the employer and the employee.
For this reason, some statutory protection is provided, e.g. protection in the event of employment contract termination and protection against discrimination.
The contents of an employment contract may be dictated by a collective agreement - result of negotiations between the employer and the trade union.
statute obliges the employer to provide written particulars of employment

5. Employment contract
The written particulars: the names of the contracting parties, the date of commencement of employment, remuneration details (rate, calculation method and payment intervals), working hours, holiday entitlement, provisions concerning sick leave and sick pay, and pension schemes
Further details include duration of contract, job title and brief description, place of work, notice period, a reference to disciplinary rules and procedures, etc.

6. End of employment
Employment can be terminated by the expiration of a fixed-term contract, by mutual agreement, or by death or dissolution of the employer.
If the employer has a surplus of workers, an employee can be made redundant. Redundancy payments to the employee are sometimes made in such cases.
In the event of gross misconduct an employee can be summarily dismissed, where employment is terminated instantly or as soon as reliable evidence of misconduct is obtained.

7. End of employment
If the notice period for dismissal was not observed by the employer, or if the contract was terminated on unlawful grounds, the employee may have a claim for unfair or wrongful dismissal.
An employee can also resign, observing the agreed notice period.
If an employee is forced to resign as a result of breach of contract by the employer or due to unfair treatment or discrimination, he/she may file a claim for constructive dismissal.

8. Employment disputes
Dissatisfaction can arise on either side of the employer-employee relationship.
Concerns can be addressed informally by instigating a discussion in good faith with a view to finding a quick and amicable solution.
In case the informal attempt fails, procedures must be laid down by the employer for handling grievances (employee complaints) and for disciplinary procedures.
If these internal procedures fail to yield results, assistance can be sought from a third party, who may act as a mediator or an arbiter in an alternative dispute resolution procedure.

9. Employment disputes
The next step: either a lawsuit before a county court, or a claim brought before an employment tribunal.
An employment tribunal comprises three members: a chairperson (a barrister or a solicitor) and two lay members, one typically from the pertinent industry, and the other often with experience in trade union activities.
The tribunals have quicker and more informal procedures than regular courts.

10. Employment disputes
Appeals against their decisions are heard by the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT), with the Court of Appeal as the third instance.
The available legal remedies are compensation, reinstatement (returning to previous employment) and re-engagement (obtaining another position with the same employer).
Compensation is the most frequently sought remedy, although a limit is set as to the amount of compensation a tribunal can award.
All other claims can be presented before county courts. These have more formal and complicated rules and procedures, but can award higher damages.

11. III Read the text one more time and answer the following questions.
1. What employee rights are guaranteed by statute in Britain?
2. What types of employee status can you find in the text? Try to provide examples.
3. Why is a contract of employment different from a regular contract?
4. What is a collective agreement? How do you think it can affect the contents of an employment contract?
5. Name some written particulars of an employment contract.
6. What is a notice period and why is it important?
7. Name some implied terms of an employment contract.
8. What are some of the reasons employment can come to an end?
9. What is meant by ‘dissolution of the employer’? Remember what you learned in the unit on company law.
10. Name all the judicial instances for the resolution of employment disputes. What do you know about their jurisdiction?

12. IV Replace the underlined expressions with expressions from the text.
1. In case of a dispute, employees are represented by their labour associations.
2. The law guarantees a minimum statutory pay.
3. Details of employment rights and obligations, including details concerning your pay are enclosed with your employment contract.
4. Employee complaints can be filed with the line manager.
5. The number of available days off is not negotiable.
6. The tribunal ordered that the claimant be returned to the position held before the lawsuit.

13. V Match the terms from the text with the corresponding definitions
REDUNDANCY
This is a lawsuit available to the employee if he believes that his dismissal was unlawful on account of the grounds for dismissal or because there was a breach of procedure in the termination of employment.
2.SUMMARY DISMISSAL
This refers to the situation where an employee initiates the termination of employment for his own reasons (e.g. to find better employment elsewhere)
3.UNFAIR/WRONGFUL DISMISSAL
This is a lawsuit available to the employee upon his own resignation. The employee has to prove that the employer was in breach of contract, which forced him to resign.
4.CONSTRUCTIVE DISMISSAL
This refers to the situation where an employee has been laid off because the amount of workload no longer justifies his employment.
5.RESIGNATION
This refers to termination of employment by the employer available when an employee has committed gross misconduct.

14. Discussion
1. The text refers to an imbalance of power between the contractual parties in an employment contract. What are the reasons behind this imbalance? Do you think the statutory protection successfully makes up for this?
2. What other duties of the employer and employee respectively might be added to the implied terms of an employment contract? Can you work out a hierarchy of those duties?
3. Think of examples of gross misconduct which might be committed by a lawyer, a judge, a medical doctor, a teacher and a bus driver.
4. What could lead to a constructive dismissal? Which is the most appropriate legal remedy for such cases?

15. Discrimination in the Workplace
Discuss the following questions:
How would you define discrimination?
Are you aware of any kind of discrimination in your environment? In what circumstances can it appear?
Do you think it is important for a country to have good anti-discrimination laws? Justify your opinion.

16. Discrimination in the Workplace
A frequent cause of dissatisfaction among employees comes from unequal or unfair treatment, or discrimination.
Certain special conditions exist in which unequal treatment of employees may be justified (such as experience, seniority, additional responsibility, special skills, etc.), but sometimes this is a result of discrimination.
The Equality Act 2010 provides comprehensive protection against several types of discrimination not only for employees, but also candidates and job applicants.

17. Discrimination in the Workplace
An employee may be discriminated against on the basis of a protected characteristic.
These are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.
Discrimination can occur directly or indirectly.
While direct discrimination is directed against the person in question, indirect discrimination occurs when a rule applying to all employees has a particular negative impact on a particular employee.

18. Discrimination in the Workplace
Discrimination is deemed to occur even if the employee in question does not in fact possess the protected characteristic that was the basis of discrimination, but is thought or perceived to possess it (perceptive discrimination), or if he or she associates with a person who possesses a protected characteristic (associative discrimination).

19. Discrimination in the Workplace
Other types of prohibited conduct relating to protected characteristics include harassment and victimisation.
Harassment - "unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic, which has the purpose or effect of violating an individual's dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that individual".
Protection from harassment can also be sought if harassment occurred due to association or perception.
On the other hand, when an employee who has made a complaint, and files a grievance or a lawsuit under the Equality Act, and consequently suffers harassment or is otherwise treated badly, they are considered to be victimised.

20. Discussion
V Discrimination can occur even before employment starts. Discriminatory practices can be found during the recruitment procedure. The text you are about to read concerns discrimination during recruitment and is intended as a guide for employers looking to employ new staff.
Before you read, discuss possible ways in which potential candidates for a job might be discriminated against in the following steps of the recruitment procedure:
job advertisements
job interviews
selecting among a number of candidates

21. Thank you for your attention!