subject: Employment Law In The Uk [print this page] If you think you've been treated unfairly at work or if you've suffered an injury due to your employer, then best bet for compensation is to hire an employment law solicitor. Still, many people prefer to know some of the basic details of their rights under the law even if a legal professional will handle the actual case itself.
There are a wide range of laws that directly regulate employment and labour relations in the UK. These range from the minimum wage act of 1998 to the cornerstone of employment law, the Employment Rights Act of 1996 as well as a variety of legislations which prevent discrimination based upon sex, race, disability, age or personal belief.
These laws are perhaps the most frequent source of labour disputes and compensation. The unfortunate truth is that in many cases, the threat of legal action is not enough of an incentive for people to overcome their own personal prejudices.
Until recently, the legal framework of equality law in the UK was fairly complex as the legislation derived from a variety of UK statutes and EU directives. However recently these laws were combined in to the Equality Act 2010 which added new provisions to prevent employer discrimination on the grounds of your work status - e.g. treating you unfavourably because you are a part time worker, agency worker or possess a union membership.
There are several key concepts at work in the equality framework of the UK. The first and most basic is the idea that discrimination is effectively "less favourable" treatment; when someone is treated worse than somebody else in the exact same situation as them yet their positions are largely the same. This could be in terms of salary, benefits, working conditions or any other aspect of employment.
Discrimination law also distinguishes between direct discrimination and indirect discrimination. Direct discrimination is the most overt breach of employment law and is in fact the specific behaviour targeted by these measures; cases where an employer directly reveals they are discriminating against someone based on their personal life or qualities are rare but once they were commonly accepted.
Indirect discrimination refers to a more subtle form, where the application of an apparently neutral provision or practise to everyone has a disproportionate effect on some people. If the employer can substantiate there is a legimitate aim in this practise and that they are acting in good faith, then this practise will not be considered an example of indirect discrimination.
The final two aspects of discrimination law are less related to formal aspects of employment but to the way someone is treated personally in the workplace.
Harassment is often considered separately to discriminatory employment practises, even if the motivation for either breach is the same (homophobia, racism, etc). Put most simply, "harassment" simply means being bullied. However there is now a unified definition of harassment used across all employment law: "unwanted conduct...with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person and of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment."
Victimisation is a problem commonly seen in employment law cases, as it refers to the further detriment that someone suffers after they have tried to complain or claim for an initial instance of poor treatment or harassment.
Although there are other areas of employment law where people may claim compensation under employment law, discrimination laws are perhaps the single biggest source of work for employment law solicitors as they are often fairly straightforward cases.
