This piece first appeared in Saga Magazine in July 1999
The text here may not be identical to the published text

If you work you now have important new rights. You are entitled to a minimum hourly wage. You cannot be made to work more than a certain number of hours each week. And you cannot be dismissed without a good reason once you have worked for your employer for at least 12 months. These new rights have been introduced over the last year. Like most employment rights, the new rules are hedged round with complex exceptions and restrictions. But in essence they are simple. And it is important that everyone who works understands them and makes sure they are being treated lawfully.

Employee or self-employed?

These new rights only apply to employees. They do not apply to self-employed people. The problem is, there is no single, hard and fast rule to decide if you are an employee or self-employed. Of course, most people know they are employees - they get paid through the PAYE system with tax and, if they are under pension age, National Insurance contributions. But nowadays there are some employers who try to tell people who work for them that they are really self-employed - just to deny them their fair rights at work. Generally, you are probably an employee if

• You turn up and work regularly at times and places decided by the company which pays you
• You get paid regularly without submitting invoices
• You work under the instructions of someone else
• You use the company's tools and equipment

You are probably self-employed if

• You decide whether to accept work or not if it is offered to you
• You decide how to carry it out and use your own equipment to do so
• You are free to do the same kind of work for other people
• You have more than one client for whom you work

These rules apply equally to people who work on a fixed term contract. You can be an employee even if you are paid for the amount you produce rather than the hours you work - even if you do the work at home. As long as you work under the supervision and guidance of one company and you are expected to work exclusively for them using their materials, then you can still be an employee. Even if you prefer to be counted as self-employed, the Inland Revenue may decide that you are really an employee using the tests above. The rules about who is and is not an employee are complicated (after all they have been argued about by lawyers and decided by courts for decades). If you are in any doubt you should get advice from a Citizen's Advice Bureau or, if you can afford it, a lawyer.

Minimum Wage

Since April 1 1999 almost every employee has been entitled to a minimum hourly wage. The amount of the minimum wage depends on age.

• £3.60 an hour if you are aged 22 or more
• £3 an hour if you are aged 18 to 22

There is no minimum wage for people aged less than 18. Although there are lower age limits there is no upper limit - so however old you are, you are still entitled to the minimum wage even if your are well over retirement age. If you are more than 22 and you are doing what is called 'accredited training' then the minimum wage is £3.20 an hour for the first six months. The minimum wage applies to all employees - full and part-time; casual staff; home-workers; permanent or temporary. The only main exceptions are

• Self-employed people
• Members of the armed forces
• Volunteers
• Prisoners

Otherwise, if you are an employee, then you can insist on being paid at least the minimum wage for the hours you work. Those hours must include travel time during the working day (but not travelling to and from work). If you are a piece worker - paid for what you produce rather than per hour - then you are still normally entitled to the minimum wage for the hours you work. But slower workers may be paid less than the minimum wage and still fall within the law. That can only happen if the employer can show that 80pc of their workers can earn the minimum wage at the rates they pay. If your pay varies from day to day or week to week, the minimum wage still applies. Each time you are paid, it must work out to be at least the minimum hourly wage on average over the period the pay covers. Working time rules Since October 1 1998 new rules have set out the maximum amount of time you can be expected to work. The new rules are very complex and no doubt they will be tested in the courts frequently. But in general the law now gives employees new rights over the they work and the breaks and holidays they must be given. Three main areas are covered.

Hours

You cannot be made to work on average more than 48 hours a week or 8 hours in any one night. Both these periods are averaged over 17 weeks. Individual employees can agree to work longer than 48 hours a week but they must do so in writing and must be able to withdraw from the agreement. The limit on night work can also be extended but only by a collective agreement among the staff concerned or their union. In addition, anyone who regularly works through the night is entitled to a health assessment before they start working nights and then once a year.

Unpaid breaks

If you work longer than six hours at a stretch you are entitled to a break of at least 20 minutes during that time - it should not be at the beginning or the end. You are also entitled to a rest period of at least 11 hours between each working day. And everyone must be given at least two days off in every fortnight. Those days off must be at least 24 hours long. Individuals cannot opt out of breaks, but collective agreements can change them. And there are exceptions when the volume of work suddenly increases or where shift patterns make the breaks impossible - but other time off must be given instead.

Paid leave

Every employee is entitled to at least three weeks paid leave each year. From November 23 1999 that rises to four weeks and the new rate applies to any time worked from that date. That means someone who works for the whole of 1999 will be entitled to 16 days' leave. Someone who works the whole of 2000 will get twenty days paid leave. However, entitlement to leave does not start until the employee has been working for the employer for at least 13 weeks. There is no statutory entitlement to leave at public holidays so the eight bank holidays can be counted towards the statutory entitlement, if they are given as paid leave.

Unfair dismissal

Once you have worked for an employer for a certain length of time you can only be sacked if the dismissal is what the law calls 'fair'. That means your employer has to have a good reason to get rid of you and has to go about the process in a fair and open way. From June 1 1999 the period before you get these rights has been cut from two years to one. And that means that a lot more people are now entitled to some security in their job. Of course, an employer can dismiss an employee for numerous good reasons such as

• Redundancy - when jobs are being cut or the organization is being closed down
• If they are unable or unqualified to do their job
• Their conduct is unacceptable

In any case, the employer has to follow certain rules and behave reasonably. Although employees have to wait one year for these rights, some others start at once. It is always unfair to dismiss someone for pregnancy, for belonging - or not belonging - to a trade union, for trying to enforce a legal employment right, or because of the minimum wage or the working time rules described above.

How to get help

Employment law is very complex and in a short piece like this only the outline of the new rules can be given. You can get more information from a trade union or staff association, from the Citizen's Advice Bureau, or from a JobCentre. You can also ring the Department of Trade and Industry on 0870 150 2500 to order publications covering many of the rights which workers have - though they cannot give you advice. And the Department now has a useful website at http://www.dti.gov.uk where you can download guides and even Acts of Parliament and Regulations.

July 1999

e-mail Paul Lewis on paul@paullewis.co.uk