By law, workers have a number of rights that are carefully laid down to ensure that individuals are treated fairly by their employers. These rights, which are provided by UK law, are called statutory rights.
While statutory rights form the basis for fair treatment in the workplace, your specific employee rights may vary depending on the type of job you are hired to do, your employment status, the arrangement you have with your employer and a few other factors. Your exact rights at work will ultimately be derived from a combination of your statutory rights and your employment contract.
Statutory Rights
These are legal rights that almost every worker is entitled to.
Your statutory rights include:
- You must be paid at least the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage. From 1 April 2026, the hourly rates are £12.71 for workers aged 21 and over, £10.85 for 18 to 20 year olds, £8.00 for under 18s and £8.00 for apprentices.
- On or before your first day of employment, you should receive a written statement clearly stating the main details and terms and conditions of your employment. The wider written statement must be provided within two months of starting work. These details may include your job title, expected hours of work, wages, paid holiday and sick leave entitlement, details of any applicable pension scheme, minimum notice period, disciplinary process and procedure for reporting a grievance.
- You must receive an itemised payslip that provides a detailed breakdown of your pay and any deductions.
- Your employer cannot make illegal deductions from your wages.
- You must not be discriminated against in the workplace. This applies to all forms of discrimination including age, disability, sex, race, sexual orientation and religious beliefs.
- Under working time rules, you usually have a right to rest breaks. This includes a rest break of at least 20 minutes if the working day exceeds 6 hours, daily rest of at least 11 hours between working days and at least one full day off during every 7 days, or two days off every 14 days.
- Health and safety laws also state that employers have a statutory duty to take care of the health and safety of their employees by providing a clean environment to work in, first aid equipment, protective clothing, drinking water and washing facilities and ensuring all machinery is safe.
- You cannot be forced to work more than an average of 48 hours a week unless you agree to put in additional working hours and confirm this in writing.
- You have the right to a certain amount of paid holiday each year. As a full-time employee you are entitled to 5.6 weeks paid leave per year. Part time workers receive pro-rata entitlement.
- You may have the right to take unpaid time off in certain circumstances, such as to look after dependants in an emergency. Eligible employees may also have rights relating to trade union activities, carer’s leave, parental leave or training requests.
- Pregnant employees are entitled to time off for antenatal care and can take up to 52 weeks statutory maternity leave.
- Eligible employees are entitled to take up to 2 weeks paternity leave at or around the period in which the baby is due or is born. Since 6 April 2026, paternity leave is available from the first day of employment, although Statutory Paternity Pay has separate eligibility criteria.
- When adopting a child, one of the adoptive parents may be entitled to up to 52 weeks statutory adoption leave. Statutory Adoption Pay is usually paid for up to 39 weeks where the eligibility criteria are met. The other partner may be entitled to paternity leave.
- You should not be harassed, victimised, treated unfairly at work or dismissed for asserting certain statutory rights, raising protected concerns or exposing suspected wrongdoing in the workplace.
- If you have been working for an employer for at least one month, they must give you notice if you are to be dismissed.
- If you receive a dismissal notice while you are pregnant or on maternity leave, the notice must be accompanied by a written explanation of the reason.
- If you need to attend a disciplinary or grievance hearing, you are usually entitled to be accompanied by a trade union representative or a workplace colleague.
- An employer may put you on short-time working or lay you off if there is a downturn in the industry and they do not have any work for you. You will not get paid if you are laid off but will receive part of your regular income if you are on short-time working. In both instances, you may be entitled to a payment called ‘guarantee payment’ from your employer.
- Fixed-term employees should not be treated less favourably than comparable permanent employees simply because they are on a fixed-term contract, unless the employer can objectively justify the treatment.
- Part-time workers should not be treated less favourably than comparable full-time workers simply because they work part time. However, entitlements to holidays and similar rights for part-time workers may be calculated on a pro-rata basis. There is no specific number of hours that automatically differentiates a part-time worker from a full-time worker. It can vary from one company to another. Which category you come under may be stated in your contract or job description.
As a general rule, many statutory rights apply from the start of employment. There are still some rights where a qualifying period applies before you can rely on them.
- From the first day of employment, employees have the right to submit a request for flexible working hours. You are allowed to make up to two statutory flexible working requests in any 12 month period. Flexible working could include flexitime, staggered hours, school hours, home working, shift changes, job sharing or compressed hours, where you work your total number of agreed hours over a shorter period of time. Employers are not required to agree to every request, but they must consider it properly, consult where required and give a valid business reason if they reject it.
- From the first day of employment, eligible employees can request unpaid parental leave to look after a child’s welfare.
- After 24 months of working for an employer, you can usually claim compensation for unfair dismissal. You can also take paid time off to look for work and claim statutory redundancy pay if you are being made redundant. Some dismissal claims, such as those involving discrimination or automatically unfair reasons, do not require two years service.
Contractual Employee Rights
As a worker or employee, you may have some rights that are set out in the terms and conditions of your employment or your contract, other than those required by law. These are known as contractual employee rights.
The terms of the contract may vary the terms of your employment and may award you additional rights beyond the statutory minimums. For example, an employer may offer maternity and paternity leave at full pay. However, this is not obligatory by law and is at the discretion of the employer.
An important point to note regarding contractual rights is that an employment contract can offer you additional rights but it cannot offer you fewer rights than those provided by law. In other words, contracts of employment cannot remove your statutory rights. In some limited cases, you may agree to vary how certain rights apply. For example, if you agree, of your own will, to opt out of the maximum 48 hour working week, this affects your statutory rights regarding that term.
Once the terms of the employment contract have been agreed upon, your employer must abide by them. If they do not, they could be held liable for breach of contract.
Are All Workers Entitled To Statutory Employment Rights?
No, not all people who work are entitled to the same statutory rights. Employees, workers, agency workers, freelancers and genuinely self-employed contractors can have different rights. Workers and agency workers still have important statutory protections, but they may not have all the same rights as an employee.
For example, workers are usually entitled to receive at least the National Minimum Wage, paid holiday and protection from discrimination. Genuinely self-employed contractors usually have fewer statutory employment rights, although they may still have protection against discrimination in some circumstances.
Others who may not receive the full set of ordinary statutory employment rights include trainee doctors, merchant seamen, police officers and armed forces employees.
Special Note Regarding Disabled Employee Rights
Under the Equality Act 2010, employers cannot discriminate against you at any stage if you are suffering from a physical or mental disability that meets the legal definition of disability. If you are suitably qualified for the job and an employer is aware of your disability, they have a duty to make reasonable adjustments in the workplace to help ensure you are not seriously disadvantaged when doing your job.
Reasonable adjustments may include removing physical barriers that limit your movements, installing an audio-visual alarm for a deaf employee or a ramp for a wheelchair user, providing a special keyboard if you have arthritis or offering additional training opportunities if necessary.