Employment Relationship

Employers have the obligation to notify their employees of the essential aspects of the contract or employment relationship. Contracts will be used to refer both to both contracts and employment relationships. The following must always be highlighted in the employment relationship-;

• the identity of the parties involved
• the place of work or, if there is no fixed or main place of work, a statement to that effect and details of the registered place of business or, where appropriate ,  the domicile of the employer;
• the title , grade, nature or category of work, and brief description of the work;
• the date of commencement of the contract and,
• in the case of temporary contract, its duration;
• the amount of paid leave;
• the length of the notice periods(statutory in most cases);
• the initial basic amount, the other component elements, and the frequency of payment of the employee's remuneration;
• the length of the employee's normal working day or working week;

• where necessary the collective agreements governing the employee's conditions of work.

Employment Law and the relationships are entirely governed by the statutes and legislation therefore everything must be signed and dated for future references. We will refer more about the contracts in the next headline.

Distinction between employees and independent contractors may seem straight forward but this distinction may not be so obvious, however if the word ‘worker’ is used instead of ‘employee’. The impute of people to use the words interchangeably but for individuals in the Employment Law sector the definition of employee is of vital important and must be distinguished from that of a self-employed person or an independent contractor.

“An employee works under a contract of service whereas an independent contractor works under a contract for services”.  The phrase contract of employment describes employee’s status, as opposed to that of being self-employed, or any other type of worker. The distinction is important, as only employees are entitled to certain protection and rights – such as maternity rights and compensation in the event of an unfair dismissal.

The main differences are determined by the following factors:-

                      i.        Insurance and Welfare Benefits-: employees are entitled to job seekers allowance, statutory sick pay and state retirement pension as long as they have paid class 1 National Insurance contributions. 
Such contributions are assessed on the employee's earnings and should be deducted at source by the employer.
In addition the employer also makes a contribution to help with the taxes and retain a lucrative working environment.
In contrast independent contractors are responsible for their own contributions and pay a lower-rate class 2 payments.
These payments only give limited rights to certain welfare benefits and do not entitle the contributor to jobseekers' allowance or statutory sick pay, which basically clarifies the independent part.