| OFFICES, SHOPS AND RAILWAY PREMISES ACT 1963 |
BACK
TO TOP |
Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act 1963
Human Rights Act 1998
Race Relations Act 1976
The Race Relations Act 1976 makes it unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of national origin, colour or race. The Act covers a number of employment areas including
benefits and services to employees
dismissal of or any other detriment to employees
promotion, transfer or training of employees
recruitment
terms and conditions of employment
Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and 1986
What are an employee's rights under Sexual and Race Discrimination laws?
An employer is not allowed to discriminate on the following grounds
1. Sex of employee or prospective employee.
2. Marital status of employee or prospective employee.
3. If an employee intends to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone gender reassignment.
4. Race, (this means colour, race, nationality or ethnic origins) of employee or prospective employee.
5. An employer cannot victimise an employee for bringing a complaint for discrimination or giving evidence in a complaint brought by another employee.
Following the introduction of the Human Rights Act 1998 an Employment Tribunal has decided that the Sexual Discrimination Act 1975 does include sexual orientation.
|
Statutory Instrument 1998 No. 1833 The Working Time Regulations 1998 came into force on 1st October 1998.
Some of the Regulations have been given below
The Statutory Instrument covers
2. Interpretations, which include the following
"day" means a period of 24 hours beginning at midnight;
"employer", in relation to a worker, means the person by whom the worker is (or, where the employment has ceased, was) employed;
"employment", in relation to a worker, means employment under his contract, and "employed" shall be construed accordingly;
"worker" means an individual who has entered into or works under (or, where the employment has ceased, worked under) - (a) a contract of employment; or(b) any other contract, whether express or implied and (if it is express) whether oral or in writing, whereby the individual undertakes to do or perform personally any work or services for another party to the contract whose status is not by virtue of the contract that of a client or customer of any profession or business undertaking carried on by the individual;and any reference to a worker's contract shall be construed accordingly;
"night time", in relation to a worker, means a period - (a) the duration of which is not less than seven hours, and (b) which includes the period between midnight and 5 a.m.,which is determined for the purposes of these Regulations by a relevant agreement, or, in default of such a determination, the period between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.;
The Regulations also include
RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS CONCERNING WORKING TIME
3. General
4. Maximum weekly working time, including overtime, shall not exceed an average of 48 hours for each seven days.
5. Agreement to exclude the maximum
6. Length of night work. - (1) A night worker's normal hours of work in any reference period which is applicable in his case shall not exceed an average of eight hours for each 24 hours.
7. Health assessment and transfer of night workers to day work
8. Pattern of work. Where the pattern according to which an employer organizes work is such as to put the health and safety of a worker employed by him at risk, in particular because the work is monotonous or the work-rate is predetermined, the employer shall ensure that the worker is given adequate rest breaks.
9. Records. An employer shall - (a) keep records which are adequate to show whether the limits specified in regulations 4(1) and 6(1) and (7) and the requirements in regulations 7(1) and (2) are being complied with in the case of each worker employed by him in relation to whom they apply; and(b) retain such records for two years from the date on which they were made.
10. Daily rest. (1) An adult worker is entitled to a rest period of not less than eleven consecutive hours in each 24-hour period during which he works for his employer.
11. Weekly rest period
12. Rest breaks. (1) Where an adult worker's daily working time is more than six hours, he is entitled to a rest break. (2) The details of the rest break to which an adult worker is entitled under paragraph (1), including its duration and the terms on which it is granted, shall be in accordance with any provisions for the purposes of this regulation which are contained in a collective agreement or a workforce agreement. (3) Subject to the provisions of any applicable collective agreement or workforce agreement, the rest break provided for in paragraph (1) is an uninterrupted period of not less than 20 minutes, and the worker is entitled to spend it away from his workstation if he has one.
13. Entitlement to annual leave. -
13.(1) Subject to paragraphs (5) and (7), a worker is entitled in each leave year to a period of leave determined in accordance with paragraph (2).
13.(2) The period of leave to which a worker is entitled under paragraph (1) is - (a) in any leave year beginning on or before 23rd November 1998, three weeks;(b) in any leave year beginning after 23rd November 1998 but before 23rd November 1999, three weeks and a proportion of a fourth week equivalent to the proportion of the year beginning on 23rd November 1998 which has elapsed at the start of that leave year; and(c) in any leave year beginning after 23rd November 1999, four weeks.
13.(3) A worker's leave year, for the purposes of this regulation, begins - (a) on such date during the calendar year as may be provided for in a relevant agreement; or(b) where there are no provisions of a relevant agreement which apply - (i) if the worker's employment began on or before 1st October 1998, on that date and each subsequent anniversary of that date; or(ii) if the worker's employment begins after 1st October 1998, on the date on which that employment begins and each subsequent anniversary of that date.
13.(4) Paragraph (3) does not apply to a worker to whom Schedule 2 applies (workers employed in agriculture) except where, in the case of a worker partly employed in agriculture, a relevant agreement so provides.
13.(5) Where the date on which a worker's employment begins is later than the date on which (by virtue of a relevant agreement) his first leave year begins, the leave to which he is entitled in that leave year is a proportion of the period applicable under paragraph (2) equal to the proportion of that leave year remaining on the date on which his employment begins.
13.(6) Where by virtue of paragraph (2)(b) or (5) the period of leave to which a worker is entitled is or includes a proportion of a week, the proportion shall be determined in days and any fraction of a day shall be treated as a whole day.
13.(7) The entitlement conferred by paragraph (1) does not arise until a worker has been continuously employed for thirteen weeks.
13.(8) For the purposes of paragraph (7), a worker has been continuously employed for thirteen weeks if his relations with his employer have been governed by a contract during the whole or part of each of those weeks.
13.(9) Leave to which a worker is entitled under this regulation may be taken in instalments, but - (a) it may only be taken in the leave year in respect of which it is due, and(b) it may not be replaced by a payment in lieu except where the worker's employment is terminated.
14. Compensation related to entitlement to leave. (1) This regulation applies where - (a) a worker's employment is terminated during the course of his leave year, and(b) on the date on which the termination takes effect ("the termination date"), the proportion he has taken of the leave to which he is entitled in the leave year under regulation 13(1) differs from the proportion of the leave year which has expired.
15. Dates on which leave is taken. (1) A worker may take leave to which he is entitled under regulation 13(1) on such days as he may elect by giving notice to his employer in accordance with paragraph (3), subject to any requirement imposed on him by his employer under paragraph (2). (2) A worker's employer may require the worker - (a) to take leave to which the worker is entitled under regulation 13(1); or(b) not to take such leave,on particular days, by giving notice to the worker in accordance with paragraph (3). (3) A notice under paragraph (1) or (2) - (a) may relate to all or part of the leave to which a worker is entitled in a leave year;(b) shall specify the days on which leave is or (as the case may be) is not to be taken and, where the leave on a particular day is to be in respect of only part of the day, its duration; and(c) shall be given to the employer or, as the case may be, the worker before the relevant date.
16. Payment in respect of periods of leave. (1) A worker is entitled to be paid in respect of any period of annual leave to which he is entitled under regulation 13, at the rate of a week's pay in respect of each week of leave.
17. Entitlements under other provisions
PART III EXCEPTIONS
18. Excluded sectors. Regulations 4(1) and (2), 6(1), (2) and (7), 7(1), and (6), 8, 10(1), 11(1) and (2), 12(1), 13 and 16 do not apply - (a) to the following sectors of activity - (i) air, rail, road, sea, inland waterway and lake transport;(ii) sea fishing;(iii) other work at sea; or(b) to the activities of doctors in training, or(c) where characteristics peculiar to certain specified services such as the armed forces or the police, or to certain specific activities in the civil protection services, inevitably conflict with the provisions of these Regulations.
19. Domestic service. Regulations 4(1) and (2), 6(1), (2) and (7), 7(1), (2) and (6) and 8 do not apply in relation to a worker employed as a domestic servant in a private household.
20. Unmeasured working time. Regulations 4(1) and (2), 6(1), (2) and (7), 10(1), 11(1) and (2) and 12(1) do not apply in relation to a worker where, on account of the specific characteristics of the activity in which he is engaged, the duration of his working time is not measured or predetermined or can be determined by the worker himself, as may be the case for - (a) managing executives or other persons with autonomous decision-taking powers;(b) family workers; or(c) workers officiating at religious ceremonies in churches and religious communities.
21. Other special cases. Subject to regulation 24, regulations 6(1), (2) and (7), 10(1), 11(1) and (2) and 12(1) do not apply in relation to a worker -
(a) where the worker's activities are such that his place of work and place of residence are distant from one another or his different places of work are distant from one another;
(b) where the worker is engaged in security and surveillance activities requiring a permanent presence in order to protect property and persons, as may be the case for security guards and caretakers or security firms;
(c) where the worker's activities involve the need for continuity of service or production, as may be the case in relation to - (i) services relating to the reception, treatment or care provided by hospitals or similar establishments, residential institutions and prisons;(ii) work at docks or airports;(iii) press, radio, television, cinematographic production, postal and telecommunications services and civil protection services;(iv) gas, water and electricity production, transmission and distribution, household refuse collection and incineration;(v) industries in which work cannot be interrupted on technical grounds;(vi) research and development activities;(vii) agriculture;
(d) where there is a foreseeable surge of activity, as may be the case in relation to - (i) agriculture;(ii) tourism; and(iii) postal services;
(e) where the worker's activities are affected by - (i) an occurrence due to unusual and unforeseeable circumstances, beyond the control of the worker's employer;(ii) exceptional events, the consequences of which could not have been avoided despite the exercise of all due care by the employer; or(iii) an accident or the imminent risk of an accident.
22. Shift workers
23. Collective and workforce agreements
24. Compensatory rest
25. Workers in the armed forces
26. Young workers: force majeure
27. Young workers employed on ships
PART IV MISCELLANEOUS
28. Enforcement
29. Offences
30. Remedies
31. Right not to suffer detriment
32. Unfair dismissal
33. Conciliation
34. Appeals
35. Restrictions on contracting out
PART V SPECIAL CLASSES OF PERSON
36. Agency workers not otherwise "workers"
37. Crown employment
38. Armed forces
39. House of Lords staff
40. House of Commons staff
41. Police service
42. Non-employed trainees
43. Agricultural workers
SCHEDULES
1. Workforce agreements
2. Workers employed in agriculture
You will need to obtain the full document in order to ensure that you comply with all aspects of the Regulations
The European Court Of Justice have recently ruled that Regulation 13 paragraph (7) is unlawful. Freelance and Contract Employees should begin 'earning' time off on a pro-rata basis from the day they are taken on.
|
| |
|