UK Law and Practice Contributed by: Phil Linnard, Philippa O’Malley, David Rintoul and Clare Fletcher, Slaughter and May
blowing) and rights in relation to working time, national minimum wage (NMW) and holidays. Workers do not currently have unfair dismissal or redundancy protec - tions. Self-employed An individual is “self-employed” if they provide ser - vices to another party while running a business or profession in their own right. Self-employed individu - als do not benefit from the majority of employment protections and are only entitled to certain minimum rights, such as a safe working environment. Future Reform? In their pre-election Plan to Make Work Pay, the Labour Party expressed an intention to “move towards a single status of worker for all but the genuinely self- employed”. This may result in the current statuses of “employee” and “worker” being combined but is likely to be the subject of future consultation. This change is not part of the Employment Rights Bill (ERB), and giv - en the wider impact on taxation, the government may require more time to carefully consider such changes. 1.2 Employment Contracts Under English law an employment contract need not be in writing (but usually is). In accordance with Section 1 of the ERA 1996, upon commencement of employment, the employer is required to provide an employee or worker with a written statement of cer - tain particulars of employment, the majority of which must be provided in a single document. This state - ment must be provided on or before the date on which the employment starts. It can be provided separately, but in practice the terms required by the statement are often incorporated into the employment contract. These particulars include: • the names of the employer and the worker; • the date when the employment began; • the date on which the employee’s continuous employment began; • the scale or rate of remuneration, or the method of calculating remuneration; • the intervals at which remuneration is paid; • details of all remuneration and benefits provided; • any terms and conditions relating to hours of work;
• the days of the week the worker is required to work, whether the working hours may be variable and how the variation will be determined; • any terms and conditions relating to holidays, including public holidays and holiday pay; • any terms and conditions relating to sick leave and pay; • any other paid leave to which the worker is entitled; • any terms and conditions relating to pensions and pension schemes; • the length of notice that the worker is required to give and entitled to receive to terminate their employment; • the job title and brief description of the work for which the worker is employed; • the place of work; • any collective agreements that directly affect the terms and conditions of employment; • specified particulars where the worker is required to work outside the UK for a period of more than one month; • any disciplinary and grievance rules or procedure applicable to the worker, or a reference to a readily accessible document specifying such rules; • any probationary period; and • any training entitlement provided by the employer, including whether any training is mandatory and/or must be paid for by the worker. Employment contracts can be indefinite (but would include a notice period, either express or implied) or for a fixed-term duration. Fixed-term employees enjoy additional protections, including the right not to suffer discrimination because of their fixed-term status unless differential treatment can be objectively justified. An employee who has been continuously employed under a series of fixed-term contracts for a period of four years or more is deemed to be a perma - nent employee, unless the continued use of fixed-term contracts is objectively justified. In addition to the express terms of the contract, Eng - lish law also implies certain terms into employment contracts. These implied terms include the following. • The duty of mutual trust and confidence.
• Obligations on the employee to: (a) serve the employer faithfully;
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