9 Essential Employee Rights Every UK Worker Should Know In 2025
As per Citation, there are around 5 million companies located in the UK, and around 24.85 million people are employed and working full-time. The employee rights ensure that both the employees and employers are protected. They provide legislation on pay, holidays, dismissal, discrimination and more.
At first glance, these employment laws may appear varied and complex. However, workers should actively try to know what their duties and entitlement terms are. Furthermore, it’s essential to know about your rights and obligations so that you do not accidentally breach any.
Let’s look at what the employment law covers and why these laws, rules and regulations exist in the first place.
What Are the Key Employment Rights in the UK?
The legislation covers the relationship between an employer and an employee. Employment laws refer to the rules made by legal bodies to regulate work procedures. As an employer, one must abide by the employment laws, and as an employee, one should have an understanding of what one’s rights are. Several law schools put special emphasis on making students aware of these key employment rights in the UK. If law students need expert guidance, they can get dissertation writing help from qualified professionals.
Now, let’s get back to the topic of essential employment rights in the UK.
1. Employment Rights Act 1996
This act is an addition to the old labour law, and it is undoubtedly one of the major laws related to employment on UK premises. The Employment Rights Act was introduced in 1996 and addressed wide domains of work problems, including the following:
- Employment or work contracts
- Paternity leaves
- Dismissal
- Maternity leaves
- Redundancy
- Unfair dismissal
- Other issues
These rules and regulations protect all the workers at a workplace and ensure that they are receiving their basic rights. If the workers do not receive their essential rights from the employers, they can take the case up to the tribunal and escalate the issues further to a higher authority.
2. Equality Act 2010
As per the Equality Act 2010, there must be no kind of discrimination among the employees in the work environment and during the process of recruitment. Any workers who may have the protected characteristics, features or abilities must not receive unfair treatment due to that.
For instance, you must not mistreat an applicant or a worker owing to their age, gender or race. Doing so can cause severe discrimination and difference. Also, it might even lead to different claims that are raised against you and the firm when the employment tribunal is held. Employers and employees must practice equality among themselves at all times.
3. Agency Worker Regulations 2010
These rules and regulations are pretty new as compared to the other laws that exist to protect the rights of workers. They are in place to make sure that equal treatment is being given to the workers of an agency.
After the 12 weeks, per the Agency Worker Regulation 2010, they will be able to get the same entitlement that they would get if they were working on the same jobs and hired by the recruiter. These workers are also entitled to get the same pay as the agreed national minimum salaries and wages and the holiday pay as decided by the law.
4. Employment Relations Act 1999
This act was introduced in 1999 to demonstrate the overall rights of workers at trade unions for industrial actions, de-recognition and recognition. Apart from all of this, the Employment Relations Act also states that employees have a right to be accompanied when a disciplinary hearing is held.
Several structured law assignments and essays are written on the topic of how the employment relations of participants should be.
It has the following main postulates:
- Recognition from the trade unions
- The freedom to associate
- Family-friendly employment practices
5. Maternity and Parental Leave Regulations 1999
The 1999 regulations for these leaves exist to clearly state the rights of new parents so that they can take care of their children. So, you are eligible to get parental leaves or maternity days to take care of the babies. Under the regulations for maternity and parental leaves in the UK, workers who have kids under the age of 18 can take up to 18 weeks of leave, which is unpaid. This can happen throughout the week if the parents have to look after the health of their new-born babies.
Along with that, a new mom can take maternity leave right after the birth of her children. They are also legally entitled to get statutory pay while they are away from work. It can happen only if they have fulfilled the eligibility criteria.
6. Part-Time Workers Regulations 2000
These rights were put into action back in 2000 to make sure that part-time employees can get comparable and fair behaviour to what they must face if they could work for 9-6 every day (or full time).
Under these rules, the employees who are on part-time work regulations and contracts are given equal treatment as compared to their colleagues who work full-time. For example, they will be eligible to get the same rate of pay as decided by the statutory rules.
7. National Minimum Wage Act 1998
As per the regulations, UK workers have a legal entitlement to provide a minimum decided pay for the people they have recruited depending on their age. The yearly bonuses and increments must also be taken into consideration.
There are, however, some exceptions to this rule. If you have some students or junior workers that you have hired for you, remember that all the people above age 23 are legally able to be paid a living wage at the national level. It applies to all the residents of the UK and has multiple provisions for the enforcing companies.
8. Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
This act is an act of legislation that was introduced in 1974, and it ensures that every person is safe at work. The Health & Safety Act also clarifies the duty of workers and businesses to safeguard the health, welfare and security of their workers. You can discuss how it is vital for businesses to ensure the overall betterment of the people they have hired.
Under this act, the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) was established to enforce different rules and regulations and give punishment to those who break those rules. The three basic rights covered by the UK residents under this act are the following:
● The Right to Know
The workers must be informed about any unsafe situations, processes, or equipment on site.
● The Right to Participate
The employees should be asked to involve themselves actively in the process of assessing, identifying, and controlling the hazards related to health and safety.
● The Right to Say No to Unsafe Work:
The workers also have a right to refuse and get away from the work that they think can be dangerous for themselves or the interests of others. They should not have to be reprimanded if they say no to it.
9. Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE)
The TUPE regulations safeguard the workers while their business transfers from one place to another. For instance, if a bigger parent company acquires your firm, these rules and regulations will safeguard your interest.
Furthermore, they also help with the concerns that current workers may have about current job security policies. It goes without saying that the staff that applies for job transfer can be secure about the continuity of their employment. This act also makes sure that all the terms and conditions for the work are met on the part of workers.
Is It Legal for Employers to Monitor Social Media?
As per Berry Smith, if employers are not careful enough, monitoring the usage of social media can create several legal problems. Particularly, depending on the social media monitoring practices of the employers, some issues may be considered a direct breach of human rights laws.
For instance, it restricts their right to privacy or freedom of expression and other rights related to the terms of employment. Therefore, employers must be extra cautious to strike a balance between the interests of their business and the rights of employees.
Conclusion
Now that we have explored it all in detail, you know about the 9 basic essential employee rights that every UK worker knows about. As an employee, it is essential to know and understand what your rights are in the workplace. These laws exist to safeguard the interests of employees and save them from unfair treatment.
In case you want to write a detailed research paper on the topic of employee rights in the workplace in the UK and you do not know where to start, get help from UK-based dissertation writing companies online. The professional writers of these companies have a sound understanding of the research and writing skills for law. The bottom line is that you must know about employment rights because without this understanding, employers could treat their staff badly, and there would be no way of getting a solution to the situation for them. Hence, equip yourself with the required knowledge.
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