The Employment Rights Act of 1996: Contract for Services

Part 1: Statement of the Particulars Regarding the Job

• The employment contract must include: the names of both the employee and employer, the date the employment started, the employee's rate of pay and when the employee will be paid, work hours, terms regarding sick leave and holiday pay, job description, job location, any special concessions mutually agreed upon, and requirements regarding the amount of notice an employee is to give if he wishes to terminate employment.
  
  

Part 2: Protection of Wages

• An employer is not allowed to take any deductions from an employee's pay unless the deduction is required by the law or if the employee has authorized the deduction. The employee's authorization must be in writing.
  
  

Section 3: Guarantee of Payments

• An employee is guaranteed to be paid for any days he is required to work, even if no work is performed. For this to occur, a worker must have been employed for one month. If the employment is to last three months or less, the worker does not qualify for guaranteed payments.
  
  

Section 4: Sunday Work for Betting Shop Workers

• Betting shop workers are not required to work on Sundays unless the worker has agreed to in his employment contract.
  
  

Part 5: Health and Safety Cases

• An employee has the right to opt out of any activity that can have a detrimental effect on his health. An employee is protected from termination if he legitimately believes that his safety is in danger and he leaves his job after bringing safety concerns to his employer and those concerns were not adequately addressed. An employee is also protected if he reasonably believes that he or other workers is in danger and takes protective measures.
  
  

Remaining Provisions

• The remaining provisions in the act outline: time off, suspension from work, maternity leave, termination of employment, unfair dismissal, right to redundancy payments and miscellaneous topics not covered in prior provisions.