Your legal rights

In April, working parents' rights will be extended in the areas of:

• additional paternity leave and pay
• right to request flexible working

Details are below. Employers should update their policies to reflect these changes.

Additional Paternity Leave and Pay

Paternity leave rights have been extended for parents of children born or placed for adoption from 3 April 2011 onwards (or who enter the UK from this date in the case of overseas adoptions).

Click here for a useful guide to what the law say about stress at work.

Section 10.1(a) of the Employment Relations Act 1999 states:

Right to be accompanied

(1) This section applies where a worker—

(a) is required or invited by his employer to attend a disciplinary or grievance hearing, and

(b) reasonably requests to be accompanied at the hearing.

(2) Where this section applies the employer must permit the worker to be accompanied at the hearing by a single companion who—

(a) is chosen by the worker and is within subsection (3),

From 6 April, employees will have a new legal right: to request time off work to undertake study or training.

Known as 'time to train', this right applies to you if you work for an organisation with 250 or more employees, but not if you are an agency worker. You must have worked for your employer for at least 26 weeks before you apply.

From 6 April 2011 the right will apply to all employees working in organisations of all sizes, regardless of how many employees there are.

From Thompson's (solicitors) website ...

Employees working in organisations that employ 250 or more people will, from 6 April 2010, have the legal right to request time off for studying or training. This will then be extended to all organisations from 6 April 2011.

What if I have an accident ?

“It’ll never happen to me “. We’re all guilty of thinking that accidents won’t happen to us, but the sad truth is that you are never that far away from the risk of being injured, whether it be a cut to the little finger or the kind of catastrophic or fatal accidents that are way too common.

Compensation is not going to be the first thing on your mind when the worst happens, but what should you do to make sure you don’t lose out?

The Law on Race Discrimination

Introduction - Guide 3

O H Parsons & Partners

We are a specialist Trade Union law firm having served Trade Unions and their members for over 60 years.

Much has changed over the years but our commitment to Socialist and Trade Union values remain as strong as ever.

We act for workers across a wide range of industries dealing with industrial injuries and employment law.

For the Union members, in partnership with their Unions, we offer the following service:

FREE

Advice and representation concerning any accident suffered at work, on the way to and from work,

EMPLOYMENT LAW TIME CHART

IDS Brief employment law time chart

Statutory right/complaint (SEE ATTACHMENT FOR RESULTS)

Dismissal

Written reasons for dismissal (S.92 ERA)

Unfair dismissal (Part X ERA)

UD for a reason connected with medical suspension (S.108(2) ERA)

UD for taking part in official industrial action (S.238A TULR(C)A)

UD for ‘trade union’ reasons (Ss.152 & 153 TULR(C)A) UD by reason of business transfer (TUPE, Reg 8)