ENGLAND & WALES Law and Practice Contributed by: James Ross, Paolo Palmigiano, Debbie Cloake, Helen Farr, Debbie Heywood and Louise Popple, Winston Taylor
• hours of work; • probationary period and terms; • notice period; • holiday pay entitlement and procedures; • sick leave policies and pay; • notice period required for termination by either party; • any training entitlement that the employer requires the worker to complete; • disciplinary and grievance procedure; • variation of terms – this explains how changes to the employment contract are made, typically requiring mutual agreement in writing; and • any post-employment restrictions – non-compete or restrictive covenants. 4.3 Working Time In the UK, the regulation of working hours for workers (which includes employees) is governed by the Work - ing Time Regulations 1998 (as amended). Key aspects of these regulations include the following. • Maximum weekly working time: Workers are protected by a 48-hour maximum working week, calculated over a reference period (typically 17 weeks). Some sectors are exempt from this, as are senior workers, who can determine their own working time. Workers can opt out of the maximum working week by signing a written statement, but they cannot be forced to do so. They may opt back into the regime at any time by giving notice to their employer. • Night work limits: For night workers, there are spe - cial limits on working hours. Typically, night work should not exceed an average of eight hours in any 24-hour period. • Rest periods and breaks: Workers have the right to rest breaks during work (a minimum of 20 min - utes if the working day is longer than six hours) and daily and weekly rest periods (11 consecutive hours’ rest in any 24-hour period and an uninter - rupted 24 hours without any work each week or 48 hours each fortnight). • Overtime regulation: Employers should decide whether overtime is voluntary or compulsory for a particular job and draft the employee’s employment contract accordingly. There are no statutory provi - sions that require an employer to pay a particular
overtime wage, but average pay over the total hours they have worked must not fall below the national minimum wage. Working time may have an impact on employees’ holiday pay. Employers must ensure that total working time, including overtime, does not exceed the maximum weekly limit unless an opt-out agreement is in place. • Record keeping: Employers must keep adequate records to show compliance with working time limits and health assessments for night workers. 4.4 Termination of Employment Contracts The following conditions apply for termination of employment. • There is no concept of “at will” employment in the UK, and employees have the right to be given notice when their employment terminates. • As a requirement by law, employees must give their employer at least one week’s notice that they are leaving if they have been employed for one month or more. An employee who has been continuously employed for more than one month, but less than two years, is entitled to receive one week’s notice from their employer. Thereafter, they are entitled to receive an additional week’s notice for each complete year of service, up to a maximum of 12 weeks. • If an employer wants to, it can extend the notice period beyond the statutory notice period by including longer notice periods in the employment contract. • An employee can be dismissed without any notice period if they have committed a serious breach of the employment contract that would justify this (eg, gross misconduct). • All employees with more than two years’ service may only be dismissed for one of the five legally fair reasons and be subject to a fair procedure. If the employer does not follow this procedure, the employee may have an entitlement to an ordinary unfair dismissal claim and can claim compensation as a result. The ERA2025 will reduce the qualifying period for unfair dismissal from two years to six months and completely remove the cap on com - pensatory awards. These changes apply from 1 January 2027.
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