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Executive summaryAlmost two-thirds of respondents said they felt either well informed(51 per cent) or very well informed (15 per cent) about theiremployment rights. Groups that might be expected to be morevulnerable at work had lower levels of awareness and knowledge abouttheir rights at work than other workers.The research also suggests that being a trade union member and/orbeing aware of employment rights may, to some extent, protectemployees from having problems to do with their rights at work, andmay help them resolve these problems.In all, 42 per cent of respondents said they had experienced a problemat work in the past five years. The most common problem reportedwas issues to do with pay, which affected 22 per cent of allrespondents.Aims and objectivesThe main aims of the study were:• to assess employees’ general awareness of the scope of their employmentrights• for selected topics, to establish employees’ knowledge of specificemployment rights provision (eg level of the National Minimum Wage, NMW,qualifying period for taking action on the grounds of unfair dismissal anddiscrimination cases, and rules for the award of costs in employmenttribunal cases)• to find out the main sources of information and professional advice aboutemployment rights issues and, when employees have had a recent problem(eg in the past five years), where they sought advice and guidance andwhat they did to try and resolve the problem• to identify the personal and employment characteristics that influenceemployees’ levels of awareness, knowledge and preparedness to seekadvice and take action to enforce their individual employment rights(including employment status).BackgroundThe first benchmark survey of ‘Awareness, Knowledge and Exercise ofIndividual Employment Rights’ was conducted in 2001 to assess the extent towhich individuals were aware of their rights, had detailed knowledge of whatthose rights entailed, and were exercising their rights. Since this firstbenchmark survey was conducted, further legislation has been introduced,most notably the Employment Act 2002, which covers a broad range of issues1
including work and parents, and dispute resolution in the workplace. Thisreport presents the results of the second benchmark survey conducted in2005, after the introduction of this legislation.It is particularly important that individuals have sufficient levels of awarenessand knowledge of the rights introduced in this legislation, as they arerequired to enforce these aspects of the law themselves. Individuals are onlyable to exercise their rights if they are aware that their employer is in breachof the law, and know where to get information and advice if they experiencea problem to do with their rights at work.Awareness of employment rightsRespondents were asked how well informed they felt about their rights atwork. Sixty-five per cent of respondents felt either very well informed or wellinformed about their rights at work: 15 per cent of respondents felt very wellinformed, and a further 51 per cent felt well informed. Twenty-eight per centdid not feel very well informed, and six per cent did not feel well informed atall. Forty-four per cent of all respondents felt that they knew as much as theyneeded to know about their rights at work, while 55 per cent felt that theycould do with knowing more. Three-quarters of all respondents (76 per cent)would know where to find out information about their rights at work if theyneeded to.The rights which the most respondents were aware of were as follows(percentage of all respondents who were aware of the right is shown inbrackets): race discrimination law (94 per cent), the NMW (93 per cent),disability discrimination law (92 per cent), sex discrimination law (91 percent), unfair dismissal law (90 per cent), ordinary maternity leave (88 percent), sexual orientation discrimination law (87 per cent), religiousdiscrimination law (87 per cent), entitlement to in-work rest breaks (85 percent), entitlement to a written statement of terms and conditions (84 percent), paid holiday entitlement (81 per cent), and the entitlement to a setdisciplinary procedure (81 per cent). There were only three rights where lessthan half of respondents were aware that the entitlement was a right:additional maternity leave (49 per cent), time off for dependants in anemergency (42 per cent), and parental leave (27 per cent).Respondents who were aware that a right was an actual legal obligation onemployers were then asked how much they knew about the detail of thatright. The rights where a high proportion of these respondents said that theyknew a lot about the detail of the law were: the right to have a writtenstatement of terms and conditions (37 per cent of those who knew it was aright knew a lot about the detail), the right to the NMW (33 per cent of thosewho knew it was a right knew a lot about the detail), the right not to bedismissed unfairly (28 per cent of those who knew it was a right knew a lotabout the detail), the right to an in-work rest break (27 per cent of those whoknew it was a right knew a lot about the detail), and the right not to bediscriminated against on the grounds of race (27 per cent of those who knewit was a right knew a lot about the detail). Around a quarter of respondentswho knew about other rights, to do with discrimination, working time andpay/contracts/disciplinary and grievance procedures, also said that they knew2
Page 5 and 6: AcknowledgementsThis research was c
Page 7 and 8: 4.3 Types of problems experienced 1
Page 9 and 10: List of Tables and ChartsTable 2.1:
Page 12: Figure 5.2: Where respondents would
Page 17 and 18: those aged 65 and over the average
Page 19 and 20: all respondents (21 per cent) said
Page 21 and 22: • to find out the main sources of
Page 23 and 24: • A variety of telephone help-lin
Page 25 and 26: unaware of what was available to th
Page 27 and 28: which the survey covered. These exe
Page 30 and 31: 1.4 Comparisons with the first benc
Page 32 and 33: 2Awareness ofemployment rightsThis
Page 34 and 35: Figure 2.1: How well informed respo
Page 36 and 37: • being a trade union/staff assoc
Page 38 and 39: Figure 2.2: Whether respondents kno
Page 40 and 41: 2.4 Awareness of employers’ legal
Page 42 and 43: 2.4.1 DiscriminationThe Sex Discrim
Page 44 and 45: minimum number of weeks paid holida
Page 46 and 47: This fairly high awareness may refl
Page 48 and 49: Ordinary maternity leave: 88 per ce
Page 50 and 51: While respondents may be aware of t
Page 52 and 53: dependent children, had children un
Page 54 and 55: It is important to note that rights
Page 56 and 57: Table 2.5: continuedWhether experie
Page 58 and 59: 2.8 Summary2.8.1 How well informed
Page 60 and 61: • 51 per cent of respondents were
Page 62 and 63: 3Knowledge of specificemployment ri
Page 64 and 65:
Figure 3.1: Estimate of the weekly
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Table 3.1 shows respondents who got
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Table 3.2: continuedHow well inform
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The median number of weeks cited by
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3.2.4 Days off in a 14-day period a
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Table 3.5: continuedEntitled to 2 d
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Figure 3.4: Which groups are covere
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Table 3.6 shows that:• A small pr
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experienced a problem in relation t
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Table 3.8: continuedWhether member
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Table 3.9 shows that respondents wh
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who had experienced a problem compa
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Table 3.11: continuedWhether experi
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Table 3.12 shows that 62 per cent o
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Respondents were asked about a moth
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3.5.1 At what point employees are l
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Table 3.16: continuedNMW: Anti-disc
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had the right to be accompanied was
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that deals with employment disputes
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3.6 Knowledge scoresPrevious sectio
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Table 3.19: continuedWhether member
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Almost half of respondents (49 per
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• When asked who could accompany
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• the number of hours or days you
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Table 4.1: continuedYes NoUnweighte
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• being older by one year, ie if
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Table 4.2 isolates all those who ha
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Figure 4.2 below lists the areas in
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Table 4.3: Whether advice/informati
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Figure 4.4: Advice or information s
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Consultation with a colleague at wo
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• Of those who found all that the
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• the employer was not willing to
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cent of all respondents, leaving th
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4.8.6 What respondent wishes they h
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Steps taken to resolve the problem
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Sixty per cent of respondents in em
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Figure 4.10: Which problem do you t
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Table 4.9: continuedNumber of emplo
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4.10 Summary4.10.1 Experiencing a p
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problem. Almost two-thirds (63 per
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5Finding information andadviceThis
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When examining where respondents wo
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not trade union/staff association m
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‘And who do you think should be m
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information services were thought t
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Respondents were very evenly divide
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website/the Internet, 14 per cent w
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6Key findings byemployment rightThi
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• 30 per cent knew hardly anythin
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• Only two per cent of respondent
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• Eight per cent of respondents s
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• An ‘awareness deficit’ was
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an employee knew about the detail o
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• An ‘awareness deficit’ was
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• One per cent of respondents sai
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6.4.6 Age discrimination (legislati
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• sex discrimination law• unfai
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7.2 Which groups are most (and leas
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Groups emerge from the bivariate an
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8Appendix 1:Description of sampleIn
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Table A1.2: Family and household ch
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Table A1.4: Characteristics of resp
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Appendix 2: Regressionmethodology a
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qualifications etc.). The co-effici
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Table A2.1: General awareness, clas
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Table A2.2: continuedIndependent va
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department. 48 The following sub-se
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Table A2.5: continuedIndependent va
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Table A2.6: continuedCollinearity s
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8.1.14 Additional variables that we
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Table A2.9: Resolved satisfactorily
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Figure A3.1: Average number of hour
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Female 10 90 564Earnings Under £15
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Figure A3.4: Frequency of on-callEv
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10Appendix 4: List ofacronymsAcasBM
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The DTI EmploymentRelations Researc
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No. 25How employers manage absence.
Page 220:
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