Five questions on employees' rights

Do I have the right to an employment contract?

Some employers offer employment contacts to their employees, although this is not a legal obligation. An employment contract is legally binding and generally the terms cannot be changed without agreement between the employer and the employee. If an employer breaches the contract, they could be sued for wrongful dismissal. In any event, employers must give their employees a written statement of their employment, such as a staff handbook, within two months of the employee’s start date.

Is my employer obliged to look after my health and safety?

Employers have a legal duty to care and look after their employees’ health, safety and welfare at work. Employers must undertake risk-assessments of all working practices if they have more than five employees, and keep a record of their findings along with the actions they intend to take to deal with risk. Additionally, employers are legally obliged to have a health and safety policy for the workplace.

Can my employer withhold my statutory rights?

An employer must not withhold employees’ statutory employment rights, although some statutory rights are acquired only after a certain length of employment. For example, employees have the right to be paid the national minimum wage from the day they start work. Conversely, in order to bring a claim for unfair dismissal against an employer, employees generally must have given one year’s continuous service.

Do I have any rights if I am dismissed unfairly?

An employee can bring an unfair dismissal claim against an employer, if they have been dismissed without fair reason or if the process used to dismiss them was unfair. In some cases, the dismissal of an employee could be deemed automatically unfair, if the employer denies the employee a statutory employment right, such as maternity leave. You have the right to take your claim to an Employment Tribunal within three months of the dismissal; therefore you should consult an employment solicitor without delay.

Is flexible working a statutory right?

Flexible working arrangements, such as flexi-time and annualised hours, are not a statutory right for employees. However, working parents are allowed to request flexible working and the employer should give the request every consideration. A parent must have been working continuously for twenty-six weeks prior to the request, and should not make more than one request per year.