Chapter 16Employing labourand employee have a right of appeal to a commissioner.
HMRC has power to pay SSP itself and should also pay
SSP if the employer is liable but insolvent.
To provide pay during suspension
1 On medical grounds. Under the ERA 1996 an em-
ployee who has had at least one month’s continuous
service with his employer and who is suspended from
work, for example under the Health and Safety at Work
etc. Act 1974, normally on the advice of an Employment
Medical Adviser, not because he is ill but because he
might become ill if he continues at work, since he is cur-
rently engaged on an industrial process which involves a
potential hazard to his health, is entitled to be paid his
normal wages while he is suspended for up to 26 weeks.
This could occur, for example, where there was a leak of
radioactivity at the workplace.
An employee may complain to an employment tri-
bunal under the ERA if his employer has not paid him
what he is entitled to during a period of suspension
and the tribunal may order the employer to pay the
employee the money which he should have had.
2 On disciplinary grounds. Suppose an employee takes
a day off without permission, in order to go to a football
match. His employer decides to suspend him for a fur-
ther day without pay: is this legal? Well, there is no
implied right to suspend an employee for disciplinary
reasons without pay. In practice, if the employer wants a
power to suspend it must be made an express term of
the contract which is agreed to by the employee and be
in the written particulars of the job. If so, it will be
justified and the employee will have to accept it.
It should be noted also that there is no implied con-
tractual term allowing an employer to suspend or fine a
worker for poor quality work. An express term is required.
3 On maternity grounds. The ERA 1996 provides for
suspension on maternity grounds. Formerly, a pregnant
woman could be fairly dismissed if because of her con-
dition she could not do her work, e.g. because of health
and safety regulations and either there was no suitable
alternative work or she had refused it. The ERA sub-
stitutes suspension on the grounds of pregnancy, recent
childbirth or breast feeding while the health hazard con-
tinues. The employee may complain to a tribunal if she is
not offered available and suitable alternative work. Suspen-
sion continues even if such an offer is refused but pay
ceases. For those who have not refused an offer, as where
it was not possible for the employer to make one, pay con-
tinues during suspension but only to a maximum of ‘a
week’s pay’ (currently £290) or normal remuneration if her
contract so provides. Those whose employer does not make
the payment can claim compensation before a tribunal.
If an employer dismisses an employee who tries to
assert his or her rights in these various suspension mat-
ters, the dismissal is automatically unfair whatever the
employee’s length of service. A claim to an employment
tribunal must be made within three months of the em-
ployment ending.Employment Bill 2008
The Employment Bill was first introduced in the House
of Lords on 6 December 2007, having been announced
in July 2007 in the government’s Draft Legislative Pro-
gramme following the Gibbons Review, the Employment
Bill seeks to ‘strengthen and clarify key aspects of
employment law’ (BERR, 2008). The Act received Royal
Assent on 13 November 2008.
The Act repealed the Employment Act 2002 (Dispute
Resolution) Regulations 2004 which were intended to
reduce employment litigation. The key proposals of the
Employment Bill will:
■improve the effectiveness of employment law to the
benefit of employers, trade unions, individuals and
the public sector;
■bring together both elements of the government’s
employment relations strategy: increasing protection
for vulnerable workers and lightening the load for
law-abiding business;
■promote compliance and help to ensure a level play-
ing field for law-abiding businesses.
It also seeks to clarify and strengthen the enforce-
ment framework for the National Minimum Wage and
employment agency standards, which covers voluntary
workers who receive no monetary payment or benefit in
kind. Voluntary workers are excluded from qualifying
for the national minimum wage by s 44 of the 1998 Act.Family-friendly provisions
There are now enshrined in law a number of employee
rights that can be described as family-friendly laws. These
follow.Antenatal care
A pregnant employee who has, on the advice of her doc-
tor, midwife or health visitor, made an appointment to
get antenatal care must have time off to keep it and471