Slide 5.1
Views on Employment Contracts (1 of 2)
The association between an employer and
employee is a legal relationship governed by
the Contract of Employment
The law distinguishes between an employee and
workers
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.2
Views on Employment Contracts (2 of 2)
The existence of a contract confers obligations on
both parties and access to various rights
Employment contracts are varied, reflecting the
different types of employment
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.3
Employment Contracts and the Law
The law distinguishes between:
• Employees – working under a contract of
service
• Non employees – workers working under a
contract for service
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.4
Employment Rights Applying
to all Workers
Table 5.1 Access to statutory employment rights
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.5
Employment Rights Applying
to Employees
Table 5.1 Access to statutory employment rights
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.6
Owed by Employers to Employees
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•
•
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A general duty of care
A duty to pay agreed wages
A duty to provide work
A duty not to treat employees in an arbitrary or
vindictive manner
• A duty to provide support to employees
• A duty to provide safe systems of work
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.7
Owed by Employees to Employers
• A duty to cooperate
• A duty to obey reasonable, lawful instructions
• A duty to exercise reasonable care and skill
• A duty to act in good faith
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.8
Owed by Employers to Employees & Vice
Versa
To maintain a relationship of mutual trust and
confidence
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.9
Owed by Employers & Ex-Employees
Duty of fidelity
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.10
Format of a Contract of Employment
• Can be in written or verbal form
• Comes into existence when an unambiguous
offer of employment is made and is
unconditionally accepted
• Courts look at the evidence of the reality of the
relationship between the parties
- Contract of service or Contract for services
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.11
Changing a Contract of Employment
• Once agreed neither side can alter the terms
and conditions which govern their relationship
without the agreement of the other
• Legal action can follow if an employer forced
change through without the agreement of the
employee
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.12
Checklist for Preparing a Contract of
Employment (1 of 3)
1. Name of employer and employee
2. Date employment began
3. Job title
4. Rate of pay, period and method of payment
5. Normal hours of work
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.13
Checklist for Preparing a Contract of
Employment (2 of 3)
6. Arrangements for holidays and holiday pay
including means of calculating these precisely
7. Terms and conditions relating to sickness,
injury and sick pay
8. Pension terms and conditions
9. Notice periods from both employee and
employer
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.14
Checklist for Preparing a Contract of
Employment (3 of 3)
10. Disciplinary rules and procedures
11. Arrangements for handling employee
grievances
12. Conditions of employment relating to trade
union membership, where applicable
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.15
Working Patterns (1 of 2)
Total number of hours worked by the average full
time worker in UK fell substantially for over 150
years
1999 the total number of hours worked began to
rise
Average number of hours weekly worked in 2003
including paid or unpaid overtime was 44 hours
for men and 39 for women
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.16
Working Patterns (2 of 2)
In 2003 figures appear to be falling
The European Union’s Working Time Directive
was introduced in 1998 – seeks to ensure no
one works more than 48 hours a week against
their will
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.17
Shift Working
Last two decades seen increase in working
population engaged in shift working
Change due in part to ‘24 hour society’
Several different types of shift patterns
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.18
Types of Shift Patterns
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•
•
•
•
•
Part time shifts
Permanent night shifts
Double day shifts
Three shift working
Split shifts
Compressed shift hours
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.19
Flexible Working Hours
• Flexitime
• Annual hours
• Zero hours contracts
Assist an organisation move towards temporal
flexibility
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.20
Flexitime
• Allows employees to start and finish at different
times
• Most systems have core hours where everyone
must be present
• Flexibility is around times outside the core
• Some systems require a set number of hours to
be worked each day
• Others allow varying lengths of working on
different days providing over period set number
of hours are worked
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.21
Advantages to Flexitime
For employees:
•
•
•
•
Great deal of control over hours worked
Can avoid peak travel times
Can maximise time spent with families
Accrue hours that can be taken off without
eating into holiday entitlement
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.22
Advantages to Flexitime
For employers:
• Should reduce the amount of time wasted at
work
• Organisation can be operational over a longer
period
• Providing choice is limited, system encourages
staff to work longer hours at busy times
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.23
Annual Hours
• Extension of flexitime to cover a whole year
• Matches working hours to business’s operating
profile
• Affords less choice to employees
• Requires careful consideration and planning
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.24
Zero Hours
• Employees are employed on a casual basis
• They are not guaranteed any hours of work at
all
• Employees are called in as and when there is a
need
• Allows employers to cope with unpredictable
business patterns
• Lack of security an issue for employees
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.25
Atypical Contractual Arrangements
• Contracts of limited duration
- permanent
- fixed term
- temporary
• Part time contracts
• Distance working
• Self employment
• Use of consultants
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.26
Distance Working
• Working overseas
• Field selling
• Home working
The emergence of new communication and
informational technologies has seen growth in:
• Teleworking
• Tele-cottaging
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.27
Advantages of Teleworking
Flexibility to employer – reduced office
accommodation costs, potential increases in
productivity
Flexibility to employee – no commuting, manage
own workload around other responsibilities
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.28
Disadvantages of Teleworking
For the employer – more difficult to foster morale,
commitment, and motivation. Can also be
difficult to maintain management control when
the workforce is geographically dispersed
For the employee – can lead to feeling of
isolation, sense of belonging reduced
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.29
HR Teleworking Issues
• Suitable job specification
• Clearly setting out parameters of action and
decision making
• Person specifications detailing required
knowledge and skills
• Induction and settling in of new teleworkers
• Link between pay and rewards
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.30
Self-employment (1 of 2)
• Over 3 million UK people are self employed
• Higher proportion in London and South East
• Opportunities for self employment in
construction, retailing, property, business
services, personal service industries
• Less opportunities in manufacturing and public
services
• Three quarters of self employed are in
partnership with other people
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.31
Self-employment (2 of 2)
• Employer buys expertise of self employed person not
full range of energies and commitment
• Most employed people earn considerably more than
most self employed people (Weir 2003)
• Self employed people typically cost more per hour to
employ
• They only need to be paid for time actually spent
completing a job/service
• More distant relationship between self employed person
and a business
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.32
Consultants
• People who sell their expertise to organisations
for a fee
• Tend to be younger people who have
substantial, specialist, and technical knowledge
• Consultancy has grown into a multi billion
pound industry
• There is a cynicism about consultancy as a
trade
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.33
Reasons for Using Consultants
• To provide specialist expertise and wider
knowledge not available in organisation
• To provide an independent view
• To act as catalyst
• To provide extra resources to meet temporary
requirements
• To help develop a consensus
• To gain and illustrate impartiality
• To justify potentially unpleasant decisions
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.34
Use of Consultants in HR
• In implementing IT solutions that help job
evaluation, and personnel information systems
• In administering and analysing psychometric
tests
• Employ where there is a strong business case
for doing so
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.35
Organisational Functions Often Outsourced
• Cleaning
• Catering
• Security
• Transportation
• Building maintenance
(Colling 2000)
Larger organisations and public sector bodies are
outsourcing HR activities
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.36
Outsourcing Reality
• The theoretical advantages of outsourcing often
fail to materialise
• Serious cost savings are often difficult to
achieve
• Loss of day to day control means problems can
take longer to rectify
• Hard in practice to replace one contractor with
another
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.37
Summary (1 of 2)
•
Legislation distinguishes between employees
and workers
•
Once contract is established cannot be
changed without consent of each party
•
Patterns of work vary considerably
•
Growing trend for atypical contracts
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005
Slide 5.38
Summary (2 of 2)
•
New technologies allow greater numbers of
workers to work at a remote distance
•
Use of outside consultants to undertake HR
activities is rising
•
Outsourcing functions is increasing
Torrington, Hall & Taylor, Human Resource Management 6e, © Pearson Education Limited 2005