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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

For further information see the Disciplinary and grievances section.

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.

The statutory grievance procedure which employers were required to follow when dealing with a grievance was repealed in April 2009 and a revised Acas Code of Practice on  Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures was introduced.

The key steps for dealing with a grievance are:

• Advise the employer of the nature of the grievance
• Hold a meeting with the employee to discuss the grievance
• Make a decision on any action  to be taken
• Give the right to appeal

The employee has a statutory right to be accompanied at the grievance hearing by a fellow worker, a trade union representative, or an official employed by a trade union. A trade union representative who is not an employed official must have been certified by their union as being competent to accompany a worker. The companion should be allowed to address the hearing to put and sum up the worker’s case, respond on behalf of the worker to any views expressed at the meeting and confer with the worker during the hearing. The companion does not however, have the right to answer questions on the worker’s behalf, address the hearing if the worker does not wish it or prevent the employer from explaining their case.

Further reading:

• Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures
• Discipline and grievances at work: The Acas Guide
• Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

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.

Updated by Matthew Yates, a Partner in the Employment team at DWF.
matthew.yates@dwf.co.uk
+44 (0)113 261 6047