Employment Rights for Graduates

Hard work and stress are part and parcel of any rewarding graduate career. However, as an employee you have legal rights to help ensure a reasonable standard of working conditions and fair treatment. You have some rights from day one of your employment, and acquire others over time.

Your rights from the beginning of your employment

Minimum Wage – Your employer must pay you the minimum wage (which at time of writing is £6.19 if you are 21 or over), even if you agree to be paid less. Working Time – You are protected from overwork by the Working Time Regulations. These set a maximum working week of 48 hours and rest breaks at specified intervals. It is possible for you to “opt out” of the maximum weekly working hours. Health and Safety – Your employer must take reasonable steps to protect you from health and safety risks at work. One example in an office situation is to have procedures in place for cleaning to avoid people slipping on wet floors. Discrimination – Under the Equality Act 2010 it is unlawful for an employer to treat you unfavourably (e.g. provide worse working conditions, or fewer opportunities for promotion and training) because of your age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage/civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion and belief, sex or sexual orientation.

Rights acquired over time

Dismissal – Once you have worked for two years (or one year if you started before April 2012), you are protected from unfair and constructive dismissal. Unfair dismissal is when you are sacked without a substantial reason or without a fair disciplinary process being followed. Constructive dismissal occurs if you are forced into resigning due to a serious breach of contract by your employer. If you are dismissed for a reason considered “automatically unfair” (e.g. due to discrimination or for trying to enforce your legal rights) this is unlawful regardless of how long you have been employed. Paternity and Maternity Women have the right to maternity leave (up to 52 weeks) from the start of their employment. However, for paternity leave and statutory maternity or paternity pay it is necessary to have been employed for a qualifying period. This is 26 weeks by the end of the 15^th week before the expected week of childbirth. Redundancy Pay After two years’ employment you become entitled to a minimum payout if you are made redundant. This is half a week’s pay for each year worked when you were less than 22 years old, a week’s pay for each year when you were between 22 and 40 and one and a half week’s pay for each year worked when you were 41 and older. So what to do if you feel that your employment rights are being breached? The vast majority of employers take their legal obligations very seriously and a discrete chat with your manager or HR should normally sort matters out. If this does not work you will need to make a formal complaint to your employer, known as a “grievance”. It is possible to enforce your rights by taking court action through the Employment Tribunal but in practice nearly all disputes can be resolved through negotiation. If you do pursue legal action, taking advice from employment lawyers is vital. Dominic Higgins graduated in ’05 from University College London with a Law degree and now works for Contact Law as a contributing writer. However, before working for Contact Law Dominic pursued a career working as a legal adviser in South Africa and the United Kingdom, specialising in Employment law. If you feel you need legal employment advice, visit Contact Law to discover how our no win no fee employment lawyers can help you.