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Your Rights as an Employee
As an employee, you are entitled to certain rights that are upheld by law. The laws are in place to protect you from being taken advantage of or being treated unfairly by your employer. These laws cover everything from how many hours you work each week to statutory paternity pay.
- As an employee you can not be asked to work more than a 48 hour week. (There are some exceptions, such as police workers, trainee doctors etc)
- If you are 22 years of age or older you are entitled to a national minimum wage (NMW) of £5.35 an hour.
- Employers can not discriminate against you for age, nationality, gender, colour, religion, disability, sexual orientation or race.
- All employees are entitled to a payslip.
- You are entitled to 4 weeks paid holiday a year, unless you fall under certain special categories.
- All pregnant women are entitled to statutory maternity leave of 26 weeks regardless of how long they have been working for their employer. They are also entitled to time off for ante-natal appointments.
- If you have been working for your employer for more than 26 weeks, you are entitled to up to 2 weeks paid paternity leave.
- Depending on the amount of time you have been employed, your employer must give you a certain amount of notice before dismissal.
- Your employer can not dismiss you if you fall pregnant, you can take them to the Employment tribunal if they do.
- If you are over 18 years of age, you are entitled to a rest break of at least 20 minutes if you work more than 6 hours.
- You are entitled to work in a safe environment.