Human Resource Management

Week 7
Employment Law
and
Employee Relations

Human Resource Management – 2022

 Employee Relations

• Concerned with the theory and practice associated with the

management and regulation of the employment relationship
• Concerned with:
• The socio-political dimension of the employment relationship
• The distribution of power between management and employees;
the incidence and expression of conflict
• The social and legislative regulatory framework within which the
employment relationship exists
• Broader connotations than ‘industrial relations

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Employee Voice and Involvement

• Reasons for listening to Employees:

• Managers do not always know best
• They may make better decisions if they listen to others.
• Employees like being involved and this can have positive outcomes,
e.g. job satisfaction.
• Direct involvement - Managers enter into a dialogue with
employees as individuals
• Indirect involvement - Employers take account of employees’
views through the filter of a representative institution

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Information Sharing

• Formal systems of communication are present in many

workplaces
• Often at a local level
• May simply be circulating information by e-mail
• Many employees believe that they are not kept informed about
what their companies are doing
• Is disclosure of information a form of employee involvement?
• It does have positive outcomes for staff

Human Resource Management - 2022

 UK Employment Law
• Employment law regulates the relationship between employers and
employees
• It governs what employers can expect from employees, what
employers can ask employees to do and employees’ rights at work
• Some of the key pieces of legislation cover:
• the terms and conditions of employment
• data protection
• holidays, working hours and pay
• health and safety regulations
• discipline, grievance and dismissal procedures
• discrimination, whistleblowing, redundancy
• TUPE

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Employment Relationship
• The basis of an employment relationship is an agreement between an
employer and an employee
• Most employment contracts do not need to be in writing to be legally
valid
• As soon as an offer of employment is accepted the contract
commences
• Starting work demonstrates that an individual has accepted the terms
and conditions offered by the employer
• Employees and workers are legally entitled to a written Statement of the
Main Terms and Conditions of Employment
• The principal statement must be provided by the employee’s first day of
employment
• The extended statement must be provided within two calendar months
of commencement

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Employment Rights Act (1996)

• Employment Rights Act 1996 (“ERA”). contains the most significant

legislative rights for individuals categorised as employees
• Employees are typically employed under a contract of employment
(Section 230(1) ERA)
• Employees have the highest level of employment status and the most
protection
• ERA 1996 Section 230 defines an ‘employee’ and a ‘worker’ in the UK
• Employee” means an individual who has entered into or works
under (or, where the employment has ceased, worked under) a
contract of employment
• Contract of employment” means a contract of service or
apprenticeship, whether express or implied, and (if it is express)
whether oral or in writing

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Employees vs Workers

• Determining whether an employee or not is a crucial factor when

making some commercial decisions including:
• introducing more flexible working arrangements
• how to treat staff in the event of an insolvency
• TUPE

• The difference has been established by several key principles outlined

by the courts through case law

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Employees - Key Principles
• Control
• who controls the work that an individual does? If the employer
exerts a significant degree of control, then the individual is likely
to be classed as an employee. Conversely, if there is a degree of
flexibility, then the individual is more likely to be classed as a
worker
• Substitution
• can someone else be sent to carry out the work or must it be
carried out by the individual? If the individual can be substituted,
they are more likely to be classed as a worker
• Mutual obligations
• is the employer obliged to provide the work and the individual
obliged to perform the work? If so, the individual is likely to be
classed as an employee

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Workers’ Rights

• The term “worker” is much broader than “employee”

• A worker is defined under section 230(3) of ERA 1996 as:
• "an individual who has entered into or works under (or, where the
employment has ceased, worked under):
• (a) a contract of employment, or
• (b) any other contract, whether express or implied and (if it is
express) whether oral or in writing, whereby the individual
undertakes to do or perform personally any work or services for
another party to the contract whose status is not by virtue of the
contract that of a client or customer of any profession or business
undertaking carried on by the individual"

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Workers’ Rights

• Workers have basic employment rights due to the greater degree of

flexibility that they have as part of their employment contract
• These include:
• holiday pay
• national minimum wage
• working hours and rest breaks (as set out by the Working Time
Regulations 1998)
• pension contributions
• protection for making a protected disclosure (whistleblowing)

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Workers
• Workers however are NOT entitled to the following :
• Statutory sick pay
• Unfair dismissal
• Redundancy pay
• Maternity, paternity, or parental leave
• Statutory minimum notice periods
• Certain payments on insolvency
• Remuneration during suspension on medical grounds
• Protection on the transfer of undertakings (TUPE)
• Not to be refused employment because of membership (or non-
membership) of a trade union
• Rights of shop / betting workers to refuse to work on a Sunday

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Terms and Conditions

• An employer must give employees and worders a document stating

the main conditions of employment when they start work
• This is known as a ‘written statement of employment particulars’
• It is not an employment contract
• The written statement is made up of:
• the main document (known as a ‘principal statement’)
• a wider written statement

• https://www.gov.uk/employment-contracts-and-conditions/written-stat
ement-of-employment-particulars

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Written Statement of Main Terms
and Conditions vs Contracts
• An employer has a legal duty (section 1 of the Employment Rights Act
1996) to provide a principal statement of employment particulars by
the first day of employment and the extended statement within two
months of an employee starting work
• An employment contract or contract of employment is a kind of
contract used in labour law to attribute rights and responsibilities
between parties (employer and employee) to a bargain
• The main difference between a statement and a written contract of
employment is that the terms set out in the statement have not been
signed by the employee
• The statement sets out the employer’s views of the terms that have
been agreed and provide evidence, if needed, to an employment
tribunal of the agreed terms of employment

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Written Statement of Main Terms
and Conditions vs Contracts

• A statement does not become contractual just because an employee

signs and returns a copy
• The statement can become a written contract of employment if there is
evidence that both the employer and employer have agreed that the
terms are contractual - by signing the document
• Good practice would be an insertion in the written statement, which
the employee should sign and return to the employer, to make it clear
that the written statement is contractual eg
– “I confirm receipt of the contract of employment [date] , which sets
out, as required under s.1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, the
terms and condition of my employment”

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Statement of Terms and Conditions
• Must be provided before employment commences:
• employee’s and employer's names
• location of work (employer’s address if different)
• job title or a brief job description
• date employment began
• probation period, if any
• salary/pay rate, how and when paid and any other benefits
• hours of work
• training and whether this is paid for by the employer
• holiday entitlement
• how long it is expected to last if fixed term

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Extended Statement of Terms and
Conditions
• This must be provided on the first day of employment:
• Paid leave (maternity, parental etc…)
• sick pay arrangements
• notice periods (if not set out must refer employee to relevant
legislation or collective agreement)
• To be provided within 2 months of start of employment:
• pensions and pension schemes
• information about disciplinary and grievance procedures
• collective agreements
• any other training required
• any collective agreements that affect employment terms or
conditions
• may be provided via staff handbook or company intranet

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Contracts

• Contracts are also made up of terms that have not been specified They
may be:
– too obvious to mention: for example, you would not expect a
contract to say that 'an employee will not steal from an employer'
– necessary to make the contract work: eg if you are employed as a
driver you must have a valid driving licence
– custom and practice: some terms of a contract can become
established over time
• Psychological contract: implicit expectations
– an existing contract of employment or statement of main terms
and conditions of employment can be varied only with the
agreement of both parties

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Psychological Contract

• definitions of the psychological contract first emerged in the 1960’s in

the work of organisational and behavioural theorists Chris Argyris and
Edgar Schein
• it is the fairness or balance (typically as perceived by the employee)
between:
– how the employee is treated by the employer, and
– what the employee puts into the job
• it is more than a transaction regulated by a legal contract
• both parties have informal expectations of each other that, although
unwritten, can significantly affect the length and quality of their
relationship

Human Resource Management - 2022

Psychological Contract “Iceberg”

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Workplace Rules
• Every workplace has rules
• Rules need to be clear and readily understood
• Number of rules should be sufficient to cover all obvious and usual
disciplinary matters
• Helpful if rules are jointly determined
• Easy access to rules
• Types of rules include:-
• Negligence
• Unreliability
• Interfering with rights of others
• Theft
• Safety offences

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Maintaining Rules
• Provision of information
• Induction
• Placement or relocation
• Training
• Review
• Penalties
• Types of Penalties:-
• rebuke/warnings
• disciplinary transfer
• demotion
• suspension
Human Resource Management - 2022
 Statutory Rights
• Job Applicant

• A job applicant has certain rights prior to being employed

• These include the right to be free from discrimination based on a
protected characteristic during the recruitment and selection
process
• discrimination example, a prospective employer cannot ask a
job applicant certain family-related questions during the
process

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Statutory Rights

Failure to give statement of particulars of employment

•Under section 1 of the Employment Right Act 1996 (ERA 1996),
employers must provide employees whose employment is to continue for
more than one month with a written statement of certain terms of their
employment
•If there is any change to any of the required statutory particulars of
employment, the employer must give the employee a written statement
containing details of the change at the earliest opportunity and, in any
event, no later than one month after the change (Section 4, ERA 1996)

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Statutory Rights
• Employees must be issued with a payslip with clearly shown
deductions
• Employer must provide an itemised payslip showing a detailed
breakdown of pay and any deductions
• Health and Safety
• Health and safety laws also state that employers have a statutory
duty to take care of the health and safety of their employees by
providing a clean environment to work in, first aid equipment,
protective clothing, drinking water and washing facilities
• Annual Leave and Time-Off
• Full-time employees are entitled to 5.6 weeks paid leave per year
and part-time employees receive a pro-rate entitlement. Employees
have the right to take unpaid time-off to undergo additional training,
attend trade union activities or to look after dependents in an
emergency
Human Resource Management - 2022
 Statutory Rights

Discipline and grievances - Breach of right to be accompanied

•A worker may bring a claim that their employer failed, or
threatened to fail, to comply with the worker's right to be
accompanied to a disciplinary or grievance hearing
•An employment tribunal can award a maximum of two weeks'
pay if the claim succeeds ( section 11(3), ERA 1996), subject to
the statutory limit on a week’s pay; there is no minimum award

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Statutory Rights
• Family leave
• Women are entitled to time-off for antenatal care and can take 52
weeks statutory maternity leave
• Other eligible employees are entitled to take 1 to 2 weeks paternity
leave at or around the period in which the baby is due or is born
• Shared parental leave of up to 50 weeks and up to 37 weeks of pay
• When adopting a child, one of the adoptive parents is entitled to 6
months paid leave and 6 months unpaid leave, and the other partner is
entitled to paternity leave
• If an employee receives a dismissal notice while they are pregnant or
on maternity leave, the notice must be accompanied by a written
explanation of the reason
• If an employee is at risk of redundancy during maternity leave, Reg. 10
of the Maternity and Parental Leave Regulations 1999 says a suitable
alternative vacancy should be offered to them

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Statutory Rights
• Breach of flexible working regulations
• Employees with at least 26 weeks' continuous employment can make a
request for flexible working
• An employee can complain to an employment tribunal if the employer
does any of the following:
• Fails to deal with their application in a reasonable manner
• Fails to notify them of the decision on their application within the
decision period
• Bases its decision on incorrect facts
• Treats the application as withdrawn when the grounds entitling the
employer to do so do not apply
• Fails to rely on one of the statutory grounds when refusing their
application

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Statutory Reasons for Rejecting
Flexible Working Request

• planned structural changes

• the burden of additional costs
• a detrimental impact on quality/performance/ability to meet
customer demands
• the inability to recruit additional staff
• a detrimental impact on performance
• the inability to reorganise work among existing staff
• a detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand
• lack of work during the periods the employee proposes to work

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Health and Safety

• Employees and workers have 3 basic rights to health and safety

• The right to know:
• Employers must ensure they make employees and workers aware of
hazards presented by people, equipment, processes or the
environment and that they receive appropriate training and
information
• The right to participate:
• Involve employees in identifying, assessing and controlling health
and safety hazards
• The right to refuse unsafe work:
• The Act allows them to refuse work they believe is likely to
endanger themselves or others and protects workers from reprisal
should they refuse

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Main UK Legislation

• Employment Rights Act 1996:

• An update to older Labour Law, this covers the rights of employees
in dismissal, unfair dismissal, paternity leave, maternity leave and
redundancy
• National Minimum Wage Act 1998:
• This act sets out the national minimum wage in the U. The
Regularly reviewed by government to keep it in line with inflation,
etc.
• Employment Relations Act 1999:
• Establishes rights at work for trade union recognition,
derecognition and industrial actions

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Main UK Legislation
• The Maternity and Parental Leave Regulations 1999:
• Statutory legislation that governs the rights of employees for time
off work
• Part-Time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment)
Regulations 2000:
• Legislation that requires employers to give people on part-time
contracts comparable treatment to those on full-time contracts
who do the same jobs
• Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations
2006:
• Protection of existing employees' rights, employment contracts
etc when a company goes through a transfer

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Major UK Legislation

• The Equality Act 2010:

• An act that prevents discrimination in the workplace and the
recruitment process.
• It identifies “protected characteristics” that cannot be used as a
reason for any workplace decisions, unless it is a decision to make
suitable arrangements to accommodate them in the workplace
• Agency Workers Regulations 2010:
• Statutory legislation that prevents discrimination of people who
work for employment agencies.
• This ensures that they are treated equally in pay and working time
when compared to full-time counterparts who do the same work

Human Resource Management - 2022

Discrimination

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Equality Act (2010)

• there are nine protected characteristics:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Race
• Religion or belief
• Sex
• Sexual orientation

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Objective Justification

• Where treatment or an action is “a proportionate means of

achieving a legitimate aim” this can avoid a discrimination
claim
• Application of this statutory test has become known through
the courts as objective justification.

• Disability - costs

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Dismissal
• Five fair reasons for dismissal
• Misconduct
• Capability (includes medical capability)
• Redundancy
• Illegality or breach of a statutory restriction
• Some Other Substantial Reason (SOSR)
• if an employer can identify one of the five potentially fair reasons for
dismissal it does not mean that an employee will not win their claim for
unfair dismissal
• the employer must follow a fair procedure before the dismissal
(procedural fairness)
• the employer must dismiss for the reason given in the particular
circumstances (substantive fairness)

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Disciplinary and Grievance

Important to take employees’ grievances seriously or legal action

can follow
• Describe breakdown of mutual confidence between the employer
and employee
• Mutual expectations form the basis of the working relationship
• When the working relationship goes wrong:
– Employee dissatisfaction = grievance
– Employer dissatisfaction = disciplinary
• Intended to avoid sanction of dismissal, but to provide the
grounds for that if necessary

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Natural Justice Principles
• These incorporate
• A knowledge of the standards and behaviour expected
• A knowledge of the alleged failure and nature of the allegation
• An investigation to establish a prima facie case should normally
precede any allegation
• The opportunity to offer an explanation and for this explanation to
be heard and considered fairly
• The opportunity to be accompanied or represented
• Any penalty should be appropriate to the offence and take
account of any mitigating factors
• The opportunity and support to improve behaviour except when
misconduct goes to the root of the contact should be provided
• A right of appeal to a higher authority

Human Resource Management - 2022

 HRM role

• Facilitate and administer grievance and disciplinary issues

• Devise and negotiate the procedural framework or organisational
justice
• Involved in interviews and problem-solving discussions
• Maintain viability of the whole process
• Monitor and make sure grievances are not overlooked
• Oversee disciplinary machinery

Human Resource Management - 2022

Forms of Discipline

Human Resource Management - 2022

Outline Disciplinary Procedure
(1 of 2)

Human Resource Management - 2022

Outline Disciplinary Procedure
(2 of 2)

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Grievance

• Types of grievance
• Dissatisfaction – anything that disturbs an employee, whether or
not the unrest is expressed in words

• Complaint – a spoken or written dissatisfaction brought to the

attention of the supervisor

• Grievance – a complaint that has been formally presented to a

management representative

Human Resource Management - 2022

Outline Grievance Procedure

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Employment Tribunals
• They are an independent tribunal which makes decisions in legal
disputes around employment law and are responsible for hearing
claims from people who think they have been treated them unlawfully
by an employer/potential employer
• Examples of unlawful treatment claims include:
• unfair dismissal/discrimination/unfair deductions from pay
• To be eligible to make an unfair dismissal claim and employee must
have worked for their employer for a qualifying period which is
normally 2 years
• Whether the ET can hear a claim depends on what the problem is and
whether the claimant meets certain conditions, eg time limits. Usually,
a claimant has three months less one day from when the event
happened to make a claim to the tribunal
• https://www.gov.uk/courts-tribunals/employment-tribunal

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Tribunal Sanctions

• If a written statement is not provided the employee after raising this

informally with their employer may raise a formal grievance.
• Eventually a claim to an employment tribunal would lead to a
compensatory award of 2 - 4 week's pay
• Employees dismissed after 1 April 2012 will have to work for two years
to regain protection from unfair dismissal
• A loss of Statutory Rights claim may lead to an award to reflect the
fact that, once dismissed, an employee will have to build up their
employment protection (their protection from unfair dismissal, and
right to redundancy pay) again

Human Resource Management - 2022

Types of Claims

Human Resource Management - 2022

 ACAS

• Acas (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) provides free

and impartial information and advice to employers and employees on
all aspects of workplace relations and employment law
• They support good relationships between employers and employees
which underpin business success
• They provide conciliation to resolve workplace problems
• They mediate in disputes
• They are governed by an independent Council, including
representatives of employer and employee organisations and
employment experts
• http://www.acas.org.uk

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Dismissal
• Five fair reasons for dismissal
• Misconduct
• Capability (includes medical capability)
• Redundancy
• Illegality or breach of a statutory restriction
• Some Other Substantial Reason (SOSR)
• if an employer can identify one of the five potentially fair reasons for
dismissal it does not mean that an employee will not win their claim for
unfair dismissal
• the employer must follow a fair procedure before the dismissal
(procedural fairness)
• the employer must dismiss for the reason given in the particular
circumstances (substantive fairness)

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Redundancy

• Redundancy is when an employer reduces their workforce because a

job or jobs are no longer needed
• Reasons for redundancy
• New technology has made the job unnecessary
• The job no longer exists
• An employer needs to cut costs by reducing staff numbers
• The business is closing or moving
• The business has been bought by another company

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Redundancy Procedure

•The exact procedure will vary according to the timescale and size of the
redundancy programme organisations go through the following stages:
• planning
• identifying the pool for selection
• seeking volunteers
• consulting employees
• selection for redundancy
• appeals and dismissals
• suitable alternative employment
• redundancy payment
• counselling and support

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Redundancy Consultation

• When 20 or more employees at one establishment are to be made

redundant, collective consultations with recognised trade unions
or elected representatives must start before a set date
• For dismissals of 20-99 employees, this is at least 30 days before
the notification of redundancies
• For dismissals of 100 or more employees, this is at least 45 days
before the notification of redundancies
• If collective consultation is required, it must be completed before
notices of dismissal are issued. If there are no recognised trade
unions or employee representatives, the employer must facilitate
the election, by the employees, of representatives for the
consultation
• The law requires ‘meaningful’ consultation – it's not enough only
to inform
• An Employment Tribunal can award compensation if an employer
fails to consult equal to 90 days’ pay

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Redundancy

• At the start of the consultation process the employer is legally

obliged to give the following information to the representatives:
• the reason for the redundancy dismissals
• the number of proposed redundancies and their job types
• the total number of employees affected
• the proposed methods of selection
• the procedure to be followed in dealing with the redundancies
• the method of calculating redundancy payment

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Redundancy
• Employers are also required to consult individual employees and give
them reasonable warning of impending redundancy
• There is no minimum statutory timescale when fewer than 20
employees are made redundant, the individual consultation must be
meaningful and may also be covered by contractual terms or policies
• An employee is entitled to be accompanied at all individual
consultation meetings by a trade union representative or colleague
• It is automatically unfair to make an employee redundant for:
• trade union membership (or non-membership)
• part-time status
• pregnancy- or maternity-related reasons
• Additionally, making someone redundant because of their age, sex,
sexual orientation, marital status, disability, race or religion or any
other protected characteristic is a breach of the Equality Act 2010

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Redundancy

• Employers must consider offering suitable alternative work to

redundant employees
• The law removes entitlement to a statutory redundancy payment if an
employee unreasonably refuses suitable alternative work
• An employee is entitled to a four-week trial period in a new role. If the
employer and employee then agree that the role is not a suitable
alternative, the employee reverts to being redundant
• The law requires employees who have at least two years’ service to be
given paid time off to look for work during the final notice period

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Statutory Redundancy Payments

• Employees are entitled to statutory redundancy pay if they have two

years continuous service with the same employer
• Current entitlements are
• half a week’s pay for each full year under 22
• one week’s pay for each full year 22 or older, but under 41
• one and half week’s pay for each full year 41 or older
• Length of service is capped at 20 years
• Redundancy entitlement on or after 6 April 2019 :
• weekly pay is capped at £571
• maximum statutory redundancy pay is £17,130

Human Resource Management - 2022

 TUPE

• TUPE Regulations preserve employees’ terms and conditions when a

business or undertaking, or part of one, is transferred to a new
employer
• Any provision of any agreement (whether a contract of employment or
not) is void so far as it would exclude or limit the rights granted under
the Regulations
• The Regulations ensure that:
• employees employed by the previous employer when the
undertaking changes hands automatically become employees of the
new employer on the same terms and conditions
• http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1655

Human Resource Management - 2022

 TUPE - Employers

• employees’ continuity of employment is preserved, as are their terms

and conditions of employment under their contracts of employment
(except for certain occupational pension rights)
• the new employer takes over the contracts of employment of all
employees who were employed in the undertaking immediately before
the transfer, or who would have been employed if they had not been
dismissed for a reason connected with the transfer
• an employer cannot just pick and choose which employees to take
• the new employer takes over all rights and obligations arising from
those contracts of employment, except criminal liabilities and rights
and obligations relating to provisions about benefits for old age,
invalidity or survivors in employees’ occupational pension schemes

Human Resource Management - 2022

 TUPE - Employers

• the new employer takes over any collective agreements made on

behalf of the employees and in force immediately before the
transfer
• neither the new employer nor the previous one may fairly dismiss
an employee because of the transfer, or a reason connected with it,
unless the reason for the dismissal is an economic, technical or
organisational reason entailing changes in the workforce
• if there is no such reason, the dismissal will be unfair
• if there is a reason and it is the cause or main cause of the
dismissal, the dismissal will be fair provided an employment
tribunal decides that the employer acted reasonably in the
circumstances in treating that reason as sufficient to justify
dismissal
• if, in this case, there is a redundancy situation, the usual
redundancy procedures will apply

Human Resource Management - 2022

 TUPE - Employers

• the new employer may not unless the contract of employment so

provides unilaterally worsen the terms and conditions of employment
of any transferred employee
• the previous and new employers must inform and consult
representatives of the employees
• Where a dismissal is because of a relevant transfer it will be deemed to
be unfair unless:
• an the employer can show there has been an economic, technical
or organisational (ETO) reason entailing changes in the workforce
• the ETO was the main cause of the dismissal, and they acted
reasonably in the circumstances in treating that reason as
sufficient to justify dismissal
• if the dismissal is considered fair employees may still be entitled to
a redundancy payment
Human Resource Management - 2022
 TUPE– Employee Liability
Information

• The outgoing employer must provide the following information about

transferring employees to the incoming employer,
• the identity and age of the employees who will transfer
• information contained in the written statement of those
employees
• details of any disciplinary action taken against an employee in the
last two years
• details of grievances raised by an employee in the last two years
• instances of legal actions taken by employees against the
outgoing employer in the last two years (any court or employment
tribunal claims)
• information regarding any collective agreements

Human Resource Management - 2022

 TUPE - Employers

• employers must inform/consult with employees through

"appropriate" elected representatives
• where there are no recognised trade unions or employee
representatives in place employers must arrange elections
amongst the affected employees to elect representatives to
consult about the transfer
• businesses with fewer than 10 employees overall are not required
to elect representatives to inform and consult where there are no
existing recognised trade unions or elected employee
representatives
• they must still inform and consult directly with each individual
employee regarding the transfer

Human Resource Management - 2022

 TUPE - Employers

• information must be given in writing and include:

• the fact that the transfer is going to take place, approximately
when and why
• any social, legal or economic implications for the affected
employees eg change in location or risk of redundancies
• any measures that the outgoing and incoming employers expect
to take in respect of their own employees (even if this is nothing)
• the number of agency workers employed, the departments they
are working in and the type of work they are doing if agency
workers are used
• the outgoing employer must provide information about any
measures which the incoming employer is considering taking in
respect of affected employees

Human Resource Management - 2022

 TUPE - Employees

• an employee claiming to have been unfairly dismissed because of a

transfer has the right to complain to an employment tribunal
• transferred employees who find there has been a fundamental change
for the worse in their terms and conditions of employment as a result
of the transfer generally have the right to terminate their contract and
claim unfair dismissal before an employment tribunal, on the grounds
that actions of the employer have forced them to resign.
• employees may not make this type of claim solely on the grounds
that the identity of their employer has changed
• the circumstances of an individual’s terms and conditions must have
changed
• the change must be significant and to the employee’s detriment

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Discrimination
• Discrimination is when an individual is directly or indirectly treated
less favourably.
• The Equality Act 2010, offers protection against discrimination to
people with ‘protected characteristics’
• Types of discrimination

• Direct – where the individual is discriminated against because of a

protected characteristic
• Indirect – where there are rules or arrangements that apply to a
group of employees or job applicants, but in practice are less fair
to a certain protected characteristic
• Associative – where an individual is discriminated against because
of an association with a person with a protected characteristic
• Perceptive – where an individual is discriminated against because
the discriminator thinks they possess a characteristic, even if they
don’t

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Bullying and Harassment

• Bullying
• There is no legal definition of bullying
• It can be considered as unwanted behaviour from a person or
group that is either: an abuse or misuse of power that undermines,
humiliates, or causes physical or emotional harm to someone

• Harassment
• Harassment is defined in section 26 of the Equality Act (2010) as
unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic
and which violates a person’s dignity or has the purpose or effect
of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or
offensive environment

Human Resource Management - 2022