Agency worker rights comparison
Quick reference comparing what agency workers are entitled to versus permanent employees.
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Employment & HR
Hiring, managing staff, and employment law compliance
Hiring & Recruitment
Before you hire your first employee
Everything you need to do before employing your first staff member.
Read guideCheck someone's right to work
How to conduct compliant right to work checks before employment begins. Includes acceptable documents, online checking service, follow-up requirements for time-limited workers, and civil penalties for non-compliance.
Read guideDBS checks for employers
When and how to request Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks for employees. Includes check types, fees, regulated activity rules, and devolved nation differences.
Read guideEmployment Contracts and Written Statements
Your legal duty to provide written employment terms. Covers the day-1 requirement, mandatory terms, contract types, zero-hours protections, and penalties for non-compliance.
Read guideEmployment status: employee, worker, or self-employed
How to correctly determine whether someone is an employee, worker, or self-employed. Covers the key legal tests, IR35 implications for contractors, and how to use HMRC's CEST tool. Essential reading before engaging any worker.
Read guideEngage and manage agency workers
Your legal obligations when using agency workers, including day-1 rights, the 12-week qualifying period, and equal treatment requirements.
Read guideEquality Act 2010 employer compliance
Your legal duties under the Equality Act 2010 including protected characteristics, discrimination types, reasonable adjustments, harassment prevention, and the new Worker Protection Act 2023 duty to prevent sexual harassment.
Read guideEqual pay: legal requirements for employers
Your legal duties to provide equal pay for equal work under the Equality Act 2010. Covers like work, work rated as equivalent, work of equal value, comparators, defences, and gender pay gap reporting for larger employers.
Read guideFire and rehire: what employers can and cannot do
Detailed guidance on fire and rehire restrictions under ERA 2025. Covers what constitutes fire and rehire, when the financial difficulties exception applies, and how to comply with the ACAS Code of Practice.
Read guideMandatory hiring requirements
Every employer obligation from pre-hire through the first month of employment. Covers right to work checks, written statements of particulars, employers' liability insurance, PAYE registration, auto-enrolment pensions, and DBS checks where required.
Read guidePreventing discrimination at work
Your duties under the Equality Act 2010 to prevent workplace discrimination. Covers the nine protected characteristics, types of unlawful conduct, reasonable adjustments for disabled employees, and equal pay requirements.
Read guidePrevent sexual harassment in the workplace
Your legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment at work, effective from 26 October 2024. Covers the anticipatory duty, third-party harassment by customers and clients, risk assessment requirements, training obligations, and the 25% tribunal compensation uplift for breaching this duty.
Read guideReasonable adjustments: employer duties for disabled employees
Your legal duty under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments for disabled employees. Covers when the duty arises, what counts as reasonable, examples of adjustments, and how to access government funding through Access to Work.
Read guideRecruit international talent with Scale-Up Visa
How to sponsor skilled workers on the Scale-Up Visa route for high-growth businesses.
Read guideSettlement agreements
How to use settlement agreements to resolve employment disputes. Covers legal requirements, tax treatment of payments, ACAS early conciliation, employee rights, and negotiation process.
Read guideSponsor overseas workers
Get a sponsor licence to hire skilled workers from outside the UK. Covers licence fees, salary thresholds, Immigration Skills Charge, Certificate of Sponsorship process, and compliance duties.
Read guideTrade union rights: what has changed for employers
Overview of trade union reform under the Employment Rights Act 2025, including workplace access rights, electronic balloting, simplified recognition, and the new requirement to include union membership information in written statements.
Read guideTUPE: protecting employees during business transfers
How the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 protect employees when a business changes hands. Covers when TUPE applies, what rights transfer automatically, information and consultation requirements, ETO reasons for changes, and due diligence for buyers.
Read guideUnderstanding unfair dismissal
What constitutes unfair dismissal, who can claim, and what compensation is available. Covers qualifying periods, automatically unfair reasons, time limits, ACAS early conciliation, and the tribunal claims process.
Read guideUnfair dismissal: employer guide
How unfair dismissal protection works for employers: the 6-month qualifying period, fire and rehire restrictions, removal of the compensation cap, and extended tribunal time limits. Includes compliance checklist and practical guidance.
Read guideUpdating employment contracts for ERA 2025
Checklist of changes needed to employment contracts and written statements following the Employment Rights Act 2025. Covers the new trade union membership notification requirement, updated SSP and family leave entitlements, zero-hours contract terms, and revised dismissal and tribunal provisions.
Read guideZero-hours contracts: employer obligations
How to comply with zero-hours contract rules: guaranteed hours offers, shift notice requirements, and compensation for cancelled shifts. Includes compliance checklist and policy templates.
Read guideEmployee Rights
Anti-discrimination law in Northern Ireland
Reference guide to Northern Ireland's separate anti-discrimination statutes. NI does not have the Equality Act 2010 -- instead, employers must comply with seven individual statutes covering religion, sex, race, disability, age, and sexual orientation, plus Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998.
Read guideEmployment law in Northern Ireland: key differences from Great Britain
How employment law in Northern Ireland differs from Great Britain. Covers the Orders in Council legislative framework, the absence of the Equality Act 2010, the role of the Labour Relations Agency, the Industrial Tribunal system, and why the Employment Rights Act 2025 does not extend to NI.
Read guideEmployment Rights Act 2025: what employers need to know
Overview of all 28 reforms in the Employment Rights Act 2025, with implementation timeline from April 2026 to 2028. Covers SSP, family leave, zero-hours contracts, unfair dismissal, fire and rehire, harassment, trade unions, the Fair Work Agency, collective redundancy, tribunal time limits, and equality action plans. Links to detailed topic guides.
Read guideFair employment monitoring requirements in Northern Ireland
Step-by-step guide to complying with fair employment monitoring obligations in Northern Ireland. If you employ 11 or more people, you must register with the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, monitor workforce community background, and submit an annual monitoring return. Failure to comply is a criminal offence.
Read guideFair Work Agency: what employers need to know
What the Fair Work Agency is, what it enforces, and how to prepare. The FWA launches on 1 April 2026 as a single enforcement body for employment rights, replacing HMRC's National Minimum Wage team, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority.
Read guideFamily leave: employer checklist
Checklist for implementing day-one paternity leave, unpaid parental leave, and bereavement leave entitlements under ERA 2025. Covers policy updates, HR system configuration, payroll requirements, and manager training.
Read guideManage redundancies correctly
How to make employees redundant fairly and legally. Covers collective consultation requirements, fair selection criteria, statutory redundancy pay calculations for 2026/27, and Northern Ireland differences.
Read guideRedundancy consultation process
How to conduct redundancy consultations properly. Covers collective consultation requirements, selection criteria, statutory redundancy pay, HR1 notification, and employee rights including time off for job hunting.
Read guideStatutory Sick Pay: employer guide
How Statutory Sick Pay works for employers: day-one eligibility, no waiting days, no lower earnings limit, and the percentage-based rate calculation. Includes payroll system requirements, rate calculation examples, and compliance checklist.
Read guideUnderstand TUPE employee transfers
How TUPE regulations affect business acquisitions. Covers automatic employee transfers, protected terms, inherited liabilities, and consultation requirements.
Read guideWorking time: legal limits and rest breaks
Legal requirements for maximum working hours, rest breaks, and annual leave. Covers the 48-hour weekly limit, opt-out agreements, rest entitlements, night worker protections, and holiday pay calculations for employers.
Read guideWorkplace Policies
Collective redundancy: updated consultation rules
Updated guidance on collective redundancy consultation following ERA 2025 changes, including doubled protective award and new organisation-wide threshold.
Read guideMake employees redundant when closing your business
How to make employees redundant when closing your business. Covers statutory redundancy pay calculations, consultation requirements, notice periods, and what happens if your business becomes insolvent before you can pay employees.
Read guidePreventing workplace harassment: employer duties
How to comply with strengthened harassment prevention duties from October 2026, including third-party harassment liability and 'all reasonable steps' requirements.
Read guideThe complete employment lifecycle: employer responsibilities from hire to exit
A comprehensive guide to employer responsibilities across every stage of the employment relationship, from lawful advertising and recruitment through onboarding, day-to-day management, handling problems, and ending employment. Covers the Equality Act 2010, Acas Code of Practice, Employment Rights Act 2025 changes, and post-employment obligations.
Read guideEmployee Relations
Information and consultation requirements (ICE)
Requirements under the ICE Regulations 2004 for informing and consulting employees about business decisions.
Read guideWorking with trade unions
Your legal obligations when dealing with trade unions, including recognition, collective bargaining, time off rights, and industrial action.
Read guideTraining & Development
Apprenticeship Levy for large employers
Mandatory 0.5% payroll levy for employers with £3 million+ annual pay bill, how to use levy funds for apprenticeship training through the digital apprenticeship service, and significant reforms under the Growth and Skills Levy from April 2026.
Read guideGuides
Handle SPL curtailment, disputed eligibility and refused-booking disputes
How to manage the dispute surface around Shared Parental Leave - curtailment-notice withdrawals, partner eligibility challenges, refusing discontinuous bookings correctly, and the HMRC and Employment Tribunal routes for ShPP and detriment claims.
Read guideHandle statutory adoption leave and pay
Step-by-step employer task guide for processing statutory adoption leave and pay, including UK adoption, overseas adoption, surrogacy intended parents and foster-to-adopt placements.
Read guideHandle statutory paternity leave and pay (post-2024 rules)
Step-by-step task guide for processing a statutory paternity leave and pay request under the post-6-April-2024 regime (SI 2024/329). Covers eligibility, the 28-day notice rule, taking leave as one or two one-week blocks within 52 weeks of birth or placement, calculating SPP, EPS recovery, and the SPP1 refusal form.
Read guideHow Shared Parental Leave works: a guide for employers and parents
Explainer on the Shared Parental Leave framework. Covers what SPL is and is not, the curtailment-and-conversion mechanic, eligibility for both parents, the notice architecture, continuous and discontinuous bookings, redundancy protection, and the 6 April 2026 ERA 2025 change.
Read guideMeet Fair Work First requirements
How to meet the mandatory and encouraged Fair Work First criteria when applying for Scottish public sector grants or contracts.
Read guideRespond to an employment tribunal claim
What to do when a current or former employee brings an employment tribunal claim against your business. Covers Acas early conciliation, the ET3 response, preparing for a hearing, and deciding whether to settle or defend.
Read guideSet up Shared Parental Leave and Pay (SPL/ShPP) for an employee
Step-by-step process for handling a Shared Parental Leave and Pay request. Covers eligibility, the binding curtailment notice, the Notice of Entitlement, period-of-leave bookings, and ShPP calculation and recovery.
Read guideStatutory family leave and pay rates 2026/27 (paternity, adoption, SPL/ShPP)
Quick lookup of statutory paternity, adoption and shared parental leave entitlements and pay rates for the 2026/27 tax year. For the underlying procedures, follow the linked task guides.
Read guideUnderstanding employee share schemes
An overview of the four HMRC tax-advantaged employee share schemes (EMI, CSOP, SIP, and SAYE), helping employers understand which scheme suits their business, how the tax advantages work, and what is involved in setting up and running a scheme.
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