This article was last updated 0 months ago and may not represent current law.
What are employee rights?
Employee rights are legal entitlement an employee has to have or do in the workplace to ensure fair treatment. However, these rights vary depending on the persons employment status, for example whether they are a worker or an employee.A worker is someone who has a contract or arrangement to do work or services personally for a reward, which can be money or a benefit in kind.
An employee is someone who has an employment contract from their employer to do regular work.
The difference between an employee and a worker can be difficult to decide, legally speaking, but usually comes down to whether the person can pick and choose jobs or has to accept whatever the employer asks of them. Ask me if you’re unsure on someone’s position.
Employees have to be employed for a minimum, continuous period of time before they qualify for some employee rights (unfair dismissal is the main one), although more of them now apply from the first day in the job, as do those relating to discrimination.
Let’s look at 5 employee rights your small business should know about.
1. You must not discriminate
Discrimination occurs when someone is treated unfairly in the workplace because of characteristics protected under the Equality Act 2010.These protected characteristics are:
- Age
- Disability
- Gender reassignment
- Marriage or civil partnership
- Pregnancy or maternity
- Race
- Religion or belief
- Sex
- Sexual orientation
Direct discrimination occurs when the unfair treatment is because of the protected characteristic. For example, a policy which said all men are allowed to have their birthday off work (but not women) would directly discriminate. Pregnancy has its own rule, so if a pregnant woman was absent due to pregnancy-related sickness, and an employer used this when taking disciplinary action against her attendance record, this would be pregnancy discrimination.
Indirect discrimination occurs when rules that apply to a group of employees or applicants are reasonable in theory, but less fair to a specific protected characteristic in practice. For example, a rule that everyone in the team has to work full time applies to all staff in the same way, but it is likely to be harder on women, as more women than men have childcare to fit around work, and unless the employer can justify the rule it would indirectly discriminate. If an employee thinks they are being discriminated against at work, then it is likely they will raise a grievance which will need to be fairly investigated and their complaint treated sensitively.
2. You must allow employees to request flexible working
Employees have the right to request flexible working (known as making a statutory application) from their first day in the job, as the old requirement for 26 weeks’ service was removed on 6 April 2024. They can make two requests in any 12 months. You have to give your decision within two months, and you can’t refuse a request without consulting the employee first. The right to flexible working could be, for example, to work part time, different hours or working from home.The government has said that in 2027 it will go further, so that an employer can only refuse a request where it is reasonable to do so and has to explain why, but that part of the Employment Rights Act 2025 is not in force yet.
Care should be given when dealing with such requests not to discriminate by applying a standard one size fits all policy. Each request should be fairly considered.
3. You have to allow time off for annual leave
Employers must provide employees who work a five-day week at least 28 days of paid annual leave per year. Sometimes this includes bank holidays, and is at the discretion of the employer. Employees can accrue holiday entitlement during maternity, paternity and adoption leave and while off sick. There is no legal right to be paid for untaken statutory holiday while the employment carries on, but when someone leaves you must pay them for any holiday they have built up and not taken, and holiday which couldn’t be taken because of sickness or family leave carries over into the next leave year.4. Employees have protection against unfair dismissal
Employees must have been continuously employed by their employer for a minimum of two years in order to be legally protected against unfair dismissal.That changes for dismissals which take effect on or after 1 January 2027, when the two years becomes six months and the cap on the compensation a tribunal can award for unfair dismissal is removed at the same time. It is the date the employment ends which counts and not the date you give notice, so notice given in December 2026 which runs out in January 2027 is caught by the new rules.
Once an employee has that protection, you must give a lawful reason if you choose to terminate an employment contract. An employer must also give the agreed amount of notice in the contract (unless this is lower than the statutory minimum notice period), and follow a fair procedure throughout the process.
A fair dismissal occurs for one of the following reasons:
- Your conduct
- Your ability to do the job
- Redundancy
- You no longer meet a legal requirement necessary to carry out your job
There are some cases where the dismissal would be considered unfair.
If you are looking to terminate someone’s employment and do need to seek legal advice, contact me as I have a wealth of experience in employment law and will advise on the best way to do it.
5. You must give out payslips
A payslip must be provided on the day an employee gets paid, or before. It must show a detailed breakdown of the pay the person is getting for the relevant time period, plus any deductions such as tax, National Insurance, student loan repayments, and pension contributions.Paper or online payslips can be given, depending on the employer’s preference.
If you’re an employer and would like advice on any of these, do get in touch. I should say that I don’t run employment tribunal claims myself; I refer those to one of my Nexa colleagues, who will quote their own fee.
Written by Steven Mather, a business solicitor acting on company sales and purchases. This is general information about the law, not legal advice on your situation. Law correct as at .
