Task 2a -Employment and Corporate LawCorporate Law- This is defined as the practice or study of how shareholders, directors,employees, creditors and other stakeholders such as the community andenvironment interact with one another. (Google.
co.uk, 2017)This type of law explores the relationships between acompany and its main stakeholders, focusing solely on the way they interact andaffect one another as well as the business. Large construction businesses willdedicate a lot of time researching the way in which they interact with theirstakeholders as well as how their stakeholders affect the business.
Forexample, the way in which directors communicate with shareholders will affectthe way a construction company operates. The reason why corporate law is so pivotal toconstruction businesses is because each interaction will impact the way it’sseen by the parties involved. As there is a lot of competition betweenbusinesses in the industry, they will take due care in their exposure todifferent types of parties. This may influence a stakeholder’s decision wheninteracting with another. An example of corporate law which affects constructioncompanies would be the Health and Safety at Work act 1974. This enforces the UKhealth and safety legislation and places a duty on all employers to ensure, sofar as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of alltheir employees. This is also where examples of tort can be introducedincluding neglect.
(Legislation.gov.uk, 2017)This act is focused on massively in the constructionindustry and has been developed to specifically suit it. The Health and SafetyExecutive was formed in 1975 and has incorporated all H&S legislations intoone organisation. The HSE is now a formally accepted body by the Britishgovernment and has certain powers in the industry that affect businessesmassively. Examples include the HSE holding inspections of construction sitesand construction companies construction phase plans, which outline all H&Sinvolved in a construction job.
The legislations enforced by the HSE ensurecompulsory measures are taken to protect all those at work. Examples oflegislations enforced by the HSE include:Control of Substances Hazardous to HealthRegulations (COSHH)Noise at Work RegulationsElectricity at Work RegulationsConstruction (Design and Management) Regulations(CDM)These legislations and regulations outline thecompulsory acts a construction company must comply with in relation to healthand safety at work. This affects all construction companies massively as theymust alter their work methods to suit the regulations not only for health andsafety but for all the other regulations such as contract law also. (Hughes and Ferrett, n.d.) The CDM regulations focus more on the design of aconstruction project as opposed to in the actual construction of it. This looksat what could affect the tenant of a project once complete including thingssuch as fire rating, access, and minimum standards and so on. A constructioncompany must not only comply with these regulations to protect the tenants, butthemselves and more importantly their employees which the health and safety actfocuses on.
Employment law- is defined as the area of law regulating the relationship between employersand employees, including what employers can expect from employees and theirrights at work. (Google.co.uk, 2017)There are three main sources of UK employment law,consisting of common law, statute and European Law. Common law is legal basisthat forms the relationship between employer and employee. All employees in theUK work under a contract which uses common law as principles within it.However, mandatory statutory requirements will be enforced regardless of the contractin place.
This also ties in with the law of tort, which will govern anemployer’s liability for the acts of its employees and liability for industrialaccidents. A contract of employment will include common law principles andother company specific requirements such as job title, pay, pension, keyduties, leave, sick pay etc. Supplement to the common law rules, statutoryrequirements are also part of employment law in the UK, some of these include:Equal Pay Act 1970Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974Employment Rights Act 1996Data Protection Act 1998National Minimum Wage Act 1998These are the primary statues under employmentprotection legislation; however these also have supplementary forms oflegislation called secondary legislation which form further provisionsaffecting the employment relationship. (Barnett andScrope, 2008) Construction companies in the UK, like allothers will have to abide by these legislations and law principles. They mustcater for an employee’s employment rights as well as statutory and secondarylegislative rights. Employment law can also relate to anyone employed under aconstruction contract.
For example if a contractor employs a sub-contractor tocarry out scaffolding works, there will be information in the contract whichmakes the contractor liable for any legislation under employment law. Whenlooking at employment law this way, there are four main stages to therelationship between the contractor and sub-contractor. These are precontractual, formation of relationship as a contractual agreement, theemployment period and the termination of the relationship. During this time theemployer must obey the employment law terms and conditions
