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Employers have various commitments to their employees when it comes to managing them and their affairs. The following sections deal with the principal areas for consideration by both employers and employees.

Health and safety

• See  also The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974

Employers have extensive obligations to safeguard the health of all of their employees. These include:

• A duty to have regard to employees' safety.
• An obligation to consult with elected trade union safety representatives.
• Liability for accidents caused by employees who are acting in the course of their employment.
• A  duty of care owed to employees and other visitors to the premises that the employer occupies.
• An obligation to prepare a written health and safety policy.
• An obligation to give health and safety representatives facilities and time off for training.
• An obligation to maintain insurance against liability for bodily injury or disease sustained by employees through their employment in the UK.
• A requirement to report accidents, injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences.

For more information, see the Health & Safety Executive website.

Grievances

• See also Disciplinary and dismissal procedures

An employee may at some point during his/her employment have a grievance with his/her employer about action which the employer has taken or is contemplating taking in relation to the employee.

There are two statutory procedures, the standard grievance procedure and the modified grievance procedure. Where an employee has a grievance that could form the basis of an employment tribunal claim, one of these procedures should be followed. All employers should put in place a grievance procedure to deal with complaints by employees and may incorporate the steps contained in the statutory grievance procedures into their own internal grievance procedures.

The steps involved in a standard statutory grievance procedure are as follows:

• The employee must set out the grievance in writing and send the statement or a copy of it to the employer.
• The employer must invite the employee to attend a meeting to discuss the grievance.
• After the meeting, the employer must inform the employee of its decision as to its response to the grievance and notify the employee of the right to appeal against the decision if the employee is not satisfied with it.
• The employee then has a right to appeal and must inform the employer of his or her wish to do so. The employer must then invite the employee to attend a further meeting.
• After the appeal meeting, the employer must inform the employee of its final decision.

Where the employee has left employment the parties may use the modified grievance procedure. This comprises the following steps:

• The employee must set out in writing the grievance and the basis for it.
• The employer must set out its response in writing and send the statement or a copy of it to the employee.

If the employer has requested the employee to attend the grievance procedure meeting, a worker will normally have the right to be accompanied by a colleague or trade union official.

• For further guidance, see the ACAS code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures – which has a number of useful charts to guide you through the procedures.

Data protection

Employers have a duty to protect the personal and sensitive information of their employees. However, employers are allowed to process their employees’ data for internal administrative purposes. Information must be processed fairly and lawfully. For more information, see the website of the Information Commissioner’s office.

Part-time and fixed-term workers

It is unlawful for employers to treat part-time workers less favourably than comparable full-time workers in their terms and conditions of employment, unless different treatment can be objectively justified (Part-Time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000). It is also unlawful for employers to treat fixed-term employees less favourably than similar permanent employees, unless different treatment can be objectively justified.

Gareth Edwards is a solicitor in the Employment Department of Reynolds Porter Chamberlain LLP.