Responsibilities as a UK employer

As a UK employer, it’s your responsibility to make sure your company follows the relevant regulations in the UK, which might be different to the other markets you operate in. These regulations may vary depending on the type of job, industry and employment contract in place, but they are the foundation for fair treatment in your workplace.

Firstly, before hiring someone, you must check they have the Right to Work in the UK as a legal requirement.

Next, in the UK, you have two months after hiring someone to issue them with a written statement of employment as a minimum requirement.

Let’s go through some statutory rights that someone has as soon as they begin working for you in the UK:

• You must pay employees at least the national minimum wage and provide staff with an itemised payslip, offer eligible workers statutory sick pay, statutory redundancy pay, statutory pay for maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave.
• You must offer a pension scheme that is compliant with auto-enrolment. It is the employee’s decision to opt-out of this if they wish to, however you must have a functional scheme in which they are enrolled into.
• Keep to the 48-hour average working week. If employees regularly work more than a 48-hour working week then either this needs to stop or they should voluntarily and expressly opt-out of the Working Time Regulations.
• Provide employees with a clean and safe work environment, including first aid equipment, protective clothing and drinking water.
• Provide a minimum of the required statutory holidays in the UK.

Failure to comply in some or all of these areas can put you at risk as a UK employer. For help and support and to make sure you are adhering to your responsibilities, do not hesitate to get in touch with Goodwille or check out our Human Resources service offering for more information.