Employment law for first line managers

Hello. Welcome to "Employment Law for First Line Managers". My name is Lucy Rees and I'm a non-practicing employment law solicitor. I practiced as an employment law solicitor for approximately 15 years. I'm now a senior lecturer at the University of the West of England in relation to employment law and human resource management.

In this presentation, I'm going to give you an overview of employment law. Unfortunately, as this is just such a brief presentation, I can't give you a detailed guide in relation to all aspects and areas of employment law. This is because there are now so many employment laws and it's so complex. Therefore, what I intend to do is to go through the employment relationship from recruitment through to dismissal and highlight the employment laws that you, as first line managers, should be aware of. In relation to each area of employment law, I'll then provide you with a link to either the ACAS or the gov.uk websites with further detailed information and guidance in relation to that law can be found. I'll also provide you with the name of the statute or regulations that are relevant to that law.

I'm going to start by looking at the employment laws that are relevant to the recruitment process.

In relation to the recruitment process, the first employment law issue that you need to consider is what will be the employment status of the person that you recruit. There are three main types of employment status: employees, workers, and the self-employed. It's important that you identify, before you start the recruitment process, what will be the employment status of the individual you recruit. This is because it will determine what their employment law rights are. The first category of employment status is an employee. They have the most employment law rights. You'll enter into a contract of employment with that employee and you'll control what they do, how they do it. And there will be an obligation on you to provide work for them and for them personally to attend and to do the work in accordance with your requirements. An example would be a secretary who works full or part- time at set hours. You provide the work, she does this in accordance with your instructions, she has to attend to it personally, etc. Most of you, I expect, are employees. The second type of employment status is a worker. They have some employment rights. For example, the right not to be discriminated against, entitlement to paid annual leave, national minimum wage, etc. Common examples of workers are seasonal workers, casual workers. These are individuals who, although they provide work for the organization, they might be able to delegate it to someone else or perhaps turn down the work when they are offered it. Some part of the employment relationship is missing. For example, a casual worker in a hotel. It might be that the hotel only offers him or her shifts as and when the hotel needs it. And even if the worker is offered a shift, they may be able to refuse it. The third category of employment status is someone who is self-employed. They have very few employment rights. An individual is self-employed if they control what they do. They control how they do it. And they control when they do it. They're in business on their own account, and they're just providing services to the company. Common examples might include contractors, electricians, plumbers. For the remainder of this presentation, I'll be assuming that you are employing an individual as an employee. Further details in relation to the different types of employment status can be found on the gov.uk and ACAS websites.