Making slave trade illegal, in the R v Knowles, ex parte Somersett, in 1772 and the subsequent abolition of slave trade through the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, acted as impetus to the death of serfdom, which stressed on employee subordination (Summers, 1969). This lend to a new era of employee workplace relation, leading to recognition of employee rights.
The employees were free to determine how they will work through contracts. Nevertheless according to Abbott, Breining and Cottier (2006), it is noted that, the employee freedom of contract did not stop the dependency of employees on their employers.
The current employment laws in UK are a product of various local and EU legislations, proceeds of court cases accumulated over a long period of time. Such include The Master and Servant Act 1867 ,the Employer and Workman Act 1875,The Trade Union Act of 1871 ,the Conspiracy, and Protection of Property Act of 1875 (Alben, 2001).
An employee can be defined as a person who has entered, into a contract and agreed to perform a particular duty, task or activity for payment(Arthurs, 2001,. The payment could be in form of salary, rates, commissions or wages. However a person can not be termed as an employee, if he or she is employed or engaged by his or her spouse, has not entered into a contract or is offering volunteer ship services.
[...] Under The Maternity and Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2002, SI No 2789, pregnant employees are entitled to a maternity leave of 26 weeks. Under the Statutory Maternity Pay, Social Security and Social Security Regulations 2006, the statutory maternity leave is 39 weeks with women required to take 52 weeks maternity leave(Barria and Roper,2002) .EU legislation directive 92/85/EEC of 1992 on pregnant women, establishes an ominous leave of 14 weeks, and to go for examination without loosing pay. It further prohibits dismissal on maternity grounds. [...]
[...] Boston: Harvard School of Public Health, 350pp. Barria, A. and Roper, D The New International Institutions of Human Rights: Efforts to Promote International Justice in Domestic Contexts. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Beiter K D The Protection of the Right to Education by International Law: Including a Systematic Analysis of Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers Bedi, S.2007. The Development of Human Rights Law by the Judges of the International Court of Justice. [...]
[...] The tribunal held that, since the employee was not working at BP, he should not have undertaken disclosure, thus BP was liable Conclusion In concluding the study deduces that, employment laws are important tools to ensure harmony and improve employee-employer relations without disputes. Nevertheless interpretation of such laws is imperative for both parties and especially if such disputes are to be avoided. Disputes are indeed expensive and costly to any organisation and thus should be avoided. References Arthurs, H Reinventing Labor Law For the Global Economy: The Benjamin Aaron Lecture. Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law v no2, p. 271-294 Alben, E GATT and The Fair Wage: A Historical Perspective on the Labor-Trade Link. [...]
[...] The employees forwarded to the employment tribunal protective awards claims. This was informed by the lack of the company to inform and consult them on the matter, which had resulted to its closure. The tribunal held that since the company had failed to comply with its duty and obligation as stated in section 188 and 189 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULR(C)A),the claimant would receive a protective pay award of 90 days Jackson v Cambridge shire County Council and others. [...]
[...] In such a case the employee can first seek support from the trade union or the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Services (ACAS). If the dispute is not resolved an employment tribunal is mandated to resolve based on interpretation of the employment laws Nethermere (St Neots) Ltd v Gardiner and Taverna In this case, the matter between the two parties was presented to the Industrial Tribunal .In the case Mrs. Gardiner a outworker, had been working for trouser manufacturing firm Nethermere (St Neots) Ltd. [...]
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