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Women are entitled to 52 weeks' maternity leave from the start of their
employment - no qualifying period of employment is required.
Employees who care for
children under 6 or disabled children under 18 are able to request
‘flexible working’ and employers have a statutory duty to consider
such requests in accordance with a set procedure and will only be able to
refuse them where they have clear business reasons for doing so.
Employees
are entitled to be accompanied by a fellow worker or Trade Union official
to disciplinary hearings – this includes hearings where oral warnings
– including so called ‘informal’ oral warnings - are given.
Employers
have to operate dismissal,
disciplinary and grievance procedures that comply with statutory
requirements, and failure to do so may result in
unfair dismissal claims, even if there were fair reasons for the
dismissal.
Discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief is
unlawful – job
applicants as well as employees will be covered - this means that
employers must not have selection criteria, company policies or contracts
which have the effect of discriminating against people of a particular
religion or belief.
It
is unlawful for employers to discriminate against employees on the
grounds of age
- employers must beware advertising for "experienced"
candidates, asking for date of birth on application forms, and allowing
staff to send out those amusing "from hip-hop to hip op." type of
birthday cards to senior colleagues.
You may run foul of the Human Rights Act if you monitor employees’ use
of the Internet and email facilities at work
More
than ever before employers need:
The right documentation.
The right procedures.
The right training.
The right
consultancy service.
We
can provide this for you at a cost far below that of the big city firms.
To
register for our free on-line legal advice e-mail service please CLICK HERE
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