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special provisions for particular occupational or other groups. There are special rules about the
employment of children and young people.
Your rights at work will depend on:
your statutory rights and
your contract of employment.
Statutory rights are legal rights based on laws passed by Parliament.
Nearly all workers, regardless of the number of hours per week they work, have certain legal rights.
The contract of employment is the agreement made between the employer and the employee. This
could be in the form of a written agreement or what has been agreed verbally between them. In
addition, the contract of employment will also include “custom and practice” agreements. These are
how things are usually done in the workplace, for example, if the employer always gives the
employees a day’s holiday in August. Even though this is not mentioned in the written contract this
will form part of the contract of employment as it is usual practice. If the written contract says one
thing, but in practice all the employees have been doing something else with the employer’s
knowledge and agreement, the “custom and practice” would form the contract rather than the written
statement.
A trade union may have negotiated an agreement with an employer about conditions at work. The
negotiated agreement will often form part of a contract of employment, particularly if the conditions
are more favourable than the previous ones. One of the main functions of trade unions is to protect the
rights of workers.
All workers, regardless of the number of hours they work per week, are entitled to receive a written
statement from their employer, within two months of starting work. The statement describes the main
terms of the contract of employment. The statement must give details about: job title, wages and hours
of work, sick pay, pension schemes, holiday entitlement, grievance, dismissal and disciplinary
procedure and so on.
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