7ELW: Explain the core principles that underpin employment law as it applies in the UK, including common-law: Employment Law Assignment, DMU, UK

• Learning Outcomes – on completion of this module, learners will be able to:
• Explain the core principles that underpin employment law as it applies in the UK (or Ireland), including common-law, their purpose, origin, and practical implications.

Indicative content: The following comprises a list of the areas of employment law that form the scope of the module:

1. accessing employment rights: employment status, worker status, continuity of employment, immigration regulations
2. contracts of employment: establishing and changing contracts, express and implied terms, written statements of major terms and conditions
3. discrimination law: the law as it relates to discrimination on grounds of sex or marital status, race, ethnicity or national origin, religion or belief, sexual orientation, disability, age, part-time and fixed-term work, and the employment of ex-offenders
4. dismissal law: unfair dismissal, constructive dismissal, wrongful dismissal, redundancy payments
5. health and safety: criminal sanctions and their enforcement, personal injury law as it relates to the workplace, Working Time regulations
6. wages and salaries: unlawful deductions, the National Minimum Wage regulations, equal pay law, the payment of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)
7. transfer of undertakings law: rights relating to dismissal, terms, and conditions of employment, consultation and continuity of employment in transfer situations
8. family-friendly employment law: rights for primary carers; maternity, paternity, and adoptive pay and leave entitlements; the law relating to ante-natal care; the health and safety of pregnant workers; parental leave; time off for family  emergencies; the right to request flexible working
9. confidentiality issues: data protection law, interception of communications, the protection of trade secrets, the law on ‘whistle-blowing’

• Advise colleagues about significant legal implications of decisions, plans or proposals in the employment field.

Indicative content: The practical impact of the above body of law on day-to-day management activities and decision-making in organizations; the level and nature of risk associated with acting unlawfully, particularly where significant change is contemplated or planned.

• Advice about the appropriate action that should be taken in workplace scenarios where employment regulation applies.

Indicative content: Approaches to recommend that are both lawful and effective in fields such as recruitment and selection, establishing terms and conditions, maintaining the working environment, managing performance, communication and involvement, discipline, pay and reward, training and development, allocating work and managing retirement

• Play a leading role in determining the appropriate organizational response when legal action on the part of a worker or employee is anticipated, threatened, or taken

Indicative content: Managing disciplinary and grievance procedures, undertaking disciplinary investigations, taking witness statements; sources of information on the expectations of the law, employer defenses, and on case law precedents.

• Participate in the preparation, presentation, and settling of employment tribunal cases.

Indicative content: Employment tribunals and other courts with jurisdiction to hear employment-related matters, tribunal procedures, rules of evidence, remedies; assessing the risks and potential costs associated with defending or settling claims in practice; alternative means of resolving disputes through mediation and arbitration

• Know how to keep their knowledge of developments in employment law up to date and advise about the impact of these developments on employment policy and practice in their organizations.

Indicative content: Sources of information about the employment law and its evolution, including ACAS and the CIPD; key current and anticipated future developments and their practical significance for organizations.