Employment Rights Act 1996 (2024)

FAQs

What is the Employment Rights Act 1996? ›

Employment Rights Act 1996 (1996 c 18) An Act to consolidate enactments relating to employment rights. This Act covers areas such as unfair dismissal, redundancy payments, protection of wages, zero hour contracts, Sunday working, suspension from work, flexible working and termination of employment.

A dismissal is potentially fair if it “relates to the capability or qualifications of the employee for performing work of the kind which he was employed by the employer to do” (Section 98 (2) (a), ERA 1996). Capability is seen as an employee's “skill, aptitude, health or any other physical or mental quality”.

Whistleblowing law is located in the Employment Rights Act 1996 (as amended by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998). It provides the right for a worker to take a case to an employment tribunal if they have been victimised at work or they have lost their job because they have 'blown the whistle'.

Employees have a right to: Not be harassed or discriminated against (treated less favorably) because of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, disability, age (40 or older) or genetic information (including family medical history).

A worker's remedy for an unlawful deduction from his or her wages is to make a claim to an employment tribunal under section 23(1) of the ERA 1996. If the tribunal upholds the claim, it must make a declaration to that effect and order the employer to repay to the employee the amount unlawfully deducted or received.

86 Rights of employer and employee to minimum notice.

(2)The notice required to be given by an employee who has been continuously employed for one month or more to terminate his contract of employment is not less than one week.

Whistleblowing means disclosing information that you reasonably believe is evidence of a violation of any law, rule, or regulation; gross mismanagement; a gross waste of funds; an abuse of authority; or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety.

For example, you are not protected when disclosing classified information to an unauthorized recipient, even if you reasonably believe the information is evidence of waste, fraud, or abuse.

A disclosure of waste, fraud, or abuse that includes classified information is not a protected disclosure under the whistleblower laws unless the disclosure is made in accordance with the laws and rules that govern the proper handling and transmission of classified information.

You cannot be denied employment, harassed, demoted, terminated, paid less, or treated less favorably because of your race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

What defines a hostile workplace? ›

A 'hostile work environment' is a workplace where there are serious instances of harassment and discrimination against protected characteristics such as race, color, religion, sex and pregnancy, national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information.

a Social Security card. a U.S. birth or birth abroad certificate. a Native American tribal document. a U.S. citizen ID card.

The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 (WPA) prohibits retaliation against most executive branch employees when they blow the whistle on significant agency wrongdoing or when they engage in protected conduct.

Under California Labor Code Section 1102.5, if an employer retaliates against a whistleblower, the employer may be required to reinstate the employee's employment and work benefits, pay lost wages, and take other steps necessary to comply with the law.

I. The organization will not retaliate against a whistleblower. This includes, but is not limited to, protection from retaliation in the form of an adverse employment action such as termination, compensation decreases, or poor work assignments and threats of physical harm.