The Penguin Guide to Employment Rights - Hina Belitz

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About Hina Belitz

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The Penguin Guide to Employment Rights

2nd Edition

» Hina Belitz

Penguin
Paperback : 26 Jan 2006

£10.99

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Synopsis

An essential guide for every worker and employer in the UK, this book is a highly accessible self-help handbook on employment rights. The emphasis is on presenting readers with their rights in plain English, cutting through the jargon that often surrounds the law. It contains 25 chapters on topics such as interview and selection, contracts of employment, flexible working, bullying, maternity rights and redundancy. Each chapter consists of a question and answer section, with replies to the most commonly asked questions, actual case histories, an easy to use listings guide to the relevant laws, and a 'Next Steps' section.

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It's a fact that employment rights affect all employees and impact commercially on all organizations that employ people. Knowing your rights in the workplace should not be optional. The 'Top 5' rights you should know are:

1. Getting the sack- whether you are an employee facing the sack or an employer wanting to be rid of a troublesome member of staff, there are key procedural steps that should be taken. Get it wrong and employment tribunals can award an employee nearly £60,000 for an unfair dismissal.

2. Being harassed or discriminated against- no employee or worker should be treated worse than other staff because of their race, sex, a disability they suffer from, their religion or belief, or their sexual orientation. If they are, the awards at employment tribunal are unlimited, which explains the six figure awards so often reported in the papers..

3. The employment contract- all employees have the right to receive a copy of the terms of their employment in writing.

4. Maternity and family friendly- there are many rights both men and women are entitled to when children are in the picture. And recent years have seen a large increase in these rights. Employers and employees should be aware of how maternity, paternity and parental leave works as well as how to request a flexible working pattern or when dependent care leave can be taken.

5. Being disciplined and raising a grievance - Employers have the right to take their employees to task for many reasons including underperformance or misbehaviour, just as an employee can formally raise concerns that they have. However, important new rules apply to being disciplined and raising grievances. Get it wrong and an employee could lose their right to go to court and an employer could face an automatic unfair dismissal complaint where the employee almost inevitably wins the case.