Employee Rights
Business law and employee rights
Hopefully, your business will eventually get to a stage where you will need to take on staff to deal with all the work you are generating. There is a lot of employment legislation within the field of business law with which you will have to comply, and it is well worth taking time to study it. We have an extensive Employment Law section addressing this topic in detail, but here are a few pointers:
Employment contracts
All staff who are employed for more than a month are legally entitled to a written statement of their main employment terms. This is a minimum requirement and it is good practice to give all employees a full written contract
Minimum wage
Under the National Minimum Wage Act, the current minimum wage for workers aged 22 years and older is £5.93 per hour. For 18-21 year olds the rate is £4.92 per hour. For workers under the age of 18 and no longer of compulsory school age the minimum wage is £3.64 per hour.
Part-time workers
Under the Part-time Workers Regulations part-timers must be treated no less favourably than their full-time counterparts.
Sick pay
If an employee is sick for less than 4 days they are not entitled to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). If they suffer illness for more than 4 days, they are entitled to SSP provided they are not excluded (e.g. over 65; pay is less than required to make National Insurance Contributions; on short term contract for 3 months or less; pregnant employees). Sick Pay is recoverable from the Government.
Parental leave
Employees with at least one year's service are entitled to take 13 weeks of unpaid leave for each of their children until they reach the age of 5.
Maternity leave
Maternity and paternity leave can cause complex issues in the workplace and within business law in general. See our Maternity Leave section.
Online trading laws
Online trading laws relate to people who sell things over the internet. One of the main developments of this is trading online through various sites.
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