BRITAINDIRECT
My Power: Know Your Rights

Employment Rights: Your Boss Is Not the Law

200 years of workers fighting and dying for these rights. Don't let ignorance hand them back.

The Basics: What Every Worker Must Know

From the moment you start work, you have rights. Some are day-one rights — like protection from discrimination and the right to a written statement of terms. Others, like unfair dismissal protection, kick in after two years of continuous service.

Your employer is legally required to provide you with a written statement of your main terms on or before your first day. This must include your pay, hours, holiday entitlement, notice period, and job title.

If you don't have this document, that's already a breach — and it weakens their position, not yours.

Day-One Rights (No Qualifying Period)

  • Protection from discrimination (Equality Act 2010) — race, sex, disability, age, religion, sexual orientation, pregnancy.
  • National Minimum Wage / National Living Wage.
  • 5.6 weeks of paid annual leave (including bank holidays if your contract says so).
  • Written statement of employment particulars.
  • Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) after 4 consecutive days of illness.
  • Whistleblower protection under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998.

Key Battlegrounds

Unfair Dismissal

After 2 years, your employer needs a fair reason (conduct, capability, redundancy, legal restriction, or "some other substantial reason") AND a fair process. No process = unfair dismissal.

Redundancy

If your role genuinely disappears, you may be entitled to statutory redundancy pay (after 2 years): 0.5–1.5 weeks' pay per year of service. If they hire someone else for your job — it wasn't redundancy.

Zero-Hours Contracts

You are NOT obliged to accept any shift. You accrue holiday. You must be paid NMW. Exclusivity clauses (preventing other work) are banned. You're a worker with worker rights — don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Employment Tribunals: Not as Scary as They Sound

Employment Tribunals are free to file (fees were scrapped after the Supreme Court ruled them unlawful in 2017). You don't need a lawyer — many people represent themselves successfully. The process:

  1. Contact ACAS for Early Conciliation (mandatory — takes up to 6 weeks).
  2. File your ET1 claim within 3 months minus 1 day of the act you're complaining about.
  3. Your employer files an ET3 response within 28 days.
  4. A preliminary hearing sets the issues and timetable.
  5. Full hearing — typically 1–5 days. You give evidence, they give evidence, the judge decides.

Compensation for unfair dismissal is currently capped at £115,115 (or 52 weeks' pay, whichever is lower) — plus a basic award. Discrimination claims have no cap.

Essential Resources

Constructive Dismissal

If your employer makes your working conditions so intolerable that you have no choice but to resign, that's constructive dismissal. But you must not delay — resigning months after the breach weakens your claim. Document everything, get advice, and resign promptly citing the specific breach.

Employment Rights Survival Checklist

Whether you're facing the sack, being bullied, or just want to know where you stand — start here.

Protect Yourself at Work
Practical steps every UK worker should take — before and during a dispute.

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