Health and Safety.

Working Hours.
The Working Time Regulations 1998 restrict how many hours most people can legally work in the UK. This law applies to full-time, parttime and casual workers. Under the regulations, employees may not work more than 48 hours a week! Averaged over a 17-week period, and are entitled to a minimum of four weeks holiday each year. Employees can sign a separate agreement to work more hours, but if they change their minds about this later, they have the right to cancel/change the agreement. There are a few exceptions: the regulations do not apply to many transport works, or to trainee doctors, the police, the armed forces and the self-employed. For all other workers, the

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974,

applies to all work premises and employers and employees. It covers the safety of employees that must be ensured by employers, e.g. safe entry and exit routes. Includes the company allowing appointments from safety representatives, and employers constantly revising and be given out to all employees (if there are more than five). It also ensures employees take responsibilities for there health and safety and respect their boss or whoever is standing in for their boss. Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, duties on employers: Work Environment:

By: Fran Risdale and Katie Penny.

Effective ventilation. Reasonable temperature.

Adequate and emergency lighting.

Sufficient space. Suitable workstations. Protection from bad weather for workstations
outside a building. Safety:

Employ ment Law

Traffic routes for pedestrians and vehicles to

circulate in a safe manner.

Properly constructed and maintained floors. Safe windows and skylights. Safely constructed doors, gates and escalators. Safeguards to prevent people or objects falling
from a height. Facilities:

Sufficient toilets and washing facilities. Adequate supply of water.

Employment laws are made so that employees are protected from any mistreatment by their employers and are a big part of a country's efforts to protect its people. Most countries have their own version of laws protecting workers, but in general, employment laws prevent the following: employees being overworked, being placed in an unhealthy or dangerous environment, or said to be unable to work without the right amount of compensation.

What is the employment law?

Equal Pay.
For many years it has been a government aim to ensure that men and women who do the same or equivalent work are paid the same wage. The Equal Pay Act 1970 was introduced to make it unlawful to offer different pay simply because

Laws to protect against discrimination.

Sex Discrimination Act 1975: Direct discrimination is where one gender is obviously excluded, e.g. only men need apply. Indirect discrimination is where a condition would make it more difficult for one sex to comply, e.g. only those over 1.98m need apply. But there are exceptions like acting and live-in jobs if the employer can show that GOC (genuine occupational qualification) applies to that job. Race Relations Act 1976: This act makes it unlawful to for anyone to be discriminated against because of their skin colour, race, nationality or ethnic origin. Both direct and indirect discrimination apply. There are certain special circumstances under which discrimination may be justified, such as Chinese waiters/waitresses in a Chinese restaurants for authenticity, but these are very rare.

one person is male and another is female. All

jobs must be equal even when the duties of each person may be different. E.g. if a woman and a man are packers, and the woman packs carrots and the man packs apples, they must receive the same pay.

In some countries, employment laws also

guarantee that workers can't be unfairly discriminated against, and allows foreigners a period of time during which they can legally work in the country. These laws started being put in place shortly after the Industrial Revolution, during the time that employees were highly mistreated and didn't have any legal protection from their employers.

Equal Opportunities.
Many organisations today have equal opportunities policies. They may include a statement in their job advertisements which says they do not discriminate against anyone on grounds of colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origin, sex,

being married, having children or a

disability. Laws to protect against discrimination covers the laws of Equal Opportunities.

Disability Discrimination Act 1995: This act is concerned with discrimination against people with disabilities in employment. The disability may be physical, mental or sensory (but must be long term - longer than 12 months). Employers must not treat a disabled person less favorably than able-bodied people in recruitment, training, promotion or dismissal, unless