The sex discrimination act – this act was made and started in 1975, this act forbids employers from discriminating against sex during employment, training and recruitment. This means that they cannot give men and woman different training because of sex. This also specifically forbids discrimination against married woman. This act also covers; No discrimination for jobs, promotion, job training and dismissal.
If Tesco want an employee to have extra training or there first set of training they have to do it on there own time because an employee does not have to accept to do the training out of there own working hours or if they are not getting paid overtime. Tesco employees have the choice to do this although training is an advantage to then not a disadvantage. By an employee accepting the training they will be able to do their job more efficiently and may have better opportunities of promotion. Although it is the employees right to choose weather to do the training Tesco may not be happy with employees if they choose not to do the training, this could give them disadvantages of promotion in the future. Tesco not only pay for the employee to do the training course but they pay them a set rate of money because they are working out of their contracted hours. This encourages the employees to do the training courses.
Pay rate – this is the hourly rate that Tesco and the employee agreed on in the contract of employment. This pay rate must be at least the minimum wage which is a set rate by the government.
Equal pay – under the laws of the EU “men and women should receive equal pay for equal work”, this law was made and started in 1970. This act applies to the fair employment act. The act states that men and women should be paid equally for the same work. Tesco have to comply with these laws otherwise they can be taken to tribunals and fined.
Hours of work – Tesco must make an agreement with the employee and fix it in the contract the hours the employee has to work each day, what time they are to start work and what time they are to finish. Employees may sometimes be expected to vary the time they start and finish work and sometimes to work overtime.
Holidays and sick pay entitlement from Tesco – It is a legal requirement set by the government that employees are entitled to four weeks paid holiday a year. Tesco allow this amount of holiday. It must be stated in the employees of Tesco’s contract weather they are entitled to employer sick pay or statutory sick pay which is a much lower payment.
Notice periods – If an employee of Tesco decide they want to leave or if Tesco decide they need to dismiss an employee the amount of paid notice needs to be known. The standard notice is four weeks; it is four weeks because Tesco will need to start the recruitment process in order to find a new employee to fill the job in.
National minimum wage act 1998 – It is a legal requirement of all businesses to pay there employees at least the minimum hourly wage. At the present date the minimum wage is £4.50 an hour for people aged twenty-two years and older; this is the adult rate. The rate for people aged 18-21 the minimum wage is £3.80; this is the development wage.
The sex discrimination act 1975 – This act was passed in 1975. This act makes it illegal for a business to discriminate against any person on the grounds of their sex and marital status weather it be in adverts, interviews, selecting new staff, training, promotions, dismissal, and terms of employment either directly or indirectly the sex discrimination act of 1975 has removed all restrictions on the limit of hours a woman is allowed to work in a week.
The race relations act 1976 - this act says that is illegal for an employer to discriminate on grounds of colour, nationality, race or ethnic origin in employment, education, trading and the provision of housing and other services either directly or indirectly. For example - only German people only or those who speak Dutch as a first language can apply.
The disability discrimination act 1995 – this act is suitable for the employer that has more than 15 employees. This act makes it illegal for an employer to treat a disabled person less favour than someone else because of his or her disability either physically or mentally but must be relatively long term for at least more than 12 months. Employers must also be prepared to make reasonable adjustments to the workplace to enable a disabled person to do a job. Discrimination in this case can report to the tribunal. It also allows the government to set minimum standards so that disabled people can use public transport more easily. The act set up the national disability to advice the government on discrimination against disabled people.
Health and Safety in Tesco – The health and safety at work act 1974 (HASWA) is one of the most important acts regarding Health and Safety at work. For Tesco to put this law into place it requires both; employees and employers to comply with it. The act clearly tells employers what they have to do in order to keep the workplace safe for not only employees but members of the public. It also states state’s what employees have to do to keep themselves safe and keep other employees and members of the public safe too. The health and safety at work act is known as an ‘umbrella’ act because it includes various regulations that have to be revised in order to make sure that the law is kept up to date. The details of the employer’s responsibilities under the HASWA are given in the workplace (Health Safety and Welfare Regulations 1992). Any person that is inattentive under the Act may face criminal charges for breaching the Health and Safety requirement; for this reason Tesco must place the details of the act in an important place in order for all employees to see. Since the introduction of the health and safety at work act there have been several other regulations introduced. These are:
- The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1992 (RIDDOR)
- The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health 1999 (COSHH)
- The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989
- The Noise at Work Regulations 1989
- The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
- Display Screen Equipment Regulations 1992
- Provision and use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998
- Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992
- The Fire Precautions Act 1971 updated by the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997 and amended Regulations in 1999
- Health and Safety (first aid) Regulations 1981
- The Health and Safety (safety signs and signals) Regulations 1996
In 2002 Tesco launched a Health and Safety step change program to further improve the standards of their Health and Safety across the business, this has seen significant progress including:
- The re-launch of our staff health and safety consultation forums at all stores
- The introduction of improved Health and Safety management for store managers and senior team; again across all stores
- Completion of three safety campaigns covering our most common hazards in-store.
Tesco must place the Act in an important place in order for employees to see. Any person that is inattentive under the Act may face criminal charges for breaching the Health and Safety requirement. There is a huge quantity of legalisation that Tesco is obliged to comply with; the human resource department of Tesco will deal with this. The Health and Safety Executive have an advisory role and gives guidance to employers and to those that are responsible for implementing health and safety legalisations, as well as inspecting the premises. It also gives approved codes of practice helping Tesco comply with the law. It is a legal requirement for Tesco to have their own safety policy because they have five or more people. This must state what Tesco’s aims are in relation to the health and safety of employees. This should also include they members of staff and the arrangements for carrying out the policy – for example the arrangements covering training and instructions, Tesco’s rules, emergency arrangements, the system for reporting accidents and the identification of risk areas. This safety policy must be signed by a senior manager of Tesco and revised often to make sure that it is always up to date. Tesco also decide their own code of practice which states the procedures that all the employees must follow in the event of an emergency – An example of this is all employees must evacuate the store to the evacuation zone if there is a fire. The safety policy must also contain information on where the medical room is situated and where to report accidents.
Below is a copy of the Tesco health and safety policy:
Here are some general duties of all employees:
- It is your duty:
- To take reasonable care of your own and others’ health and safety, who may be affected by your acts, or omissions, at work;
- To co-operate fully with anyone who is responsible for carrying out duties regarding health and safety in order to help them carry out their tasks;
- To not intentionally or recklessly interfere with, or misuse, anything provided for the purposes of health, safety or welfare;
- To observe the safety rules. Failure to comply with these rules could mean you are liable under the disciplinary procedures; and
- To be aware that it is a criminal offence to be in breach of the Health & Safety legislation and individuals may face a heavy fine or imprisonment.
- You will be given training to ensure that all safety rules required by law and by ourselves are properly carried out and we will review all instructional programmes from time to time.
- You will be kept informed of new developments in Health & Safety matters which concern you. This could be through written communications or properly structured training sessions.
General Health and Safety Guidelines and Accident Prevention.
The guidelines below are intended to provide guidance to you on general health and safety, with more detailed guidelines relating to specific subjects.
By following the Health & Safety Policy and these supporting guidelines, you will gain an understanding of our approach to health and safety and of the need to comply with the numerous statutory requirements in operation, which affect our premises. The required health and safety standards will also be achieved.
Housekeeping:
- you must keep the premises in a clean and tidy condition with stairways and passageways kept clear;
- you must make sure that wires and leads do not trail across the floor; where this is unavoidable, it should only be for a short period and you must then keep them close to furnishings or arrange them so that they do not cause a tripping hazard;
- When outside contractors are on the premises you must monitor their work and take all reasonable steps to ensure that they do not endanger the health and safety of staff or visitors;
- You should clear up without delay anything spilled or dropped onto the floor, e.g. liquids, paper, flower petals, food etc.;
- You must keep the public areas clean and tidy at all times and empty waste bins daily; and
- You should not leave members of the public alone in the service areas normally used by the staff.
Furniture, Furnishing and Fittings:
- You should move items as little as possible and seek assistance when required;
- You should take broken furniture out of service immediately and report this for prompt repair or replacement;
- You should not keep cupboard/cabinet doors open and take care concerning the operation of four-drawer filing cabinets. Some designs of these cabinets allow more than one drawer to be opened at any one time. Please ensure that only one drawer is ever opened at any one time; and
- You must not remove fire extinguishers from their specific locations such as wall-mounted brackets, other than in emergency situations, and under no circumstances use them as door-stops.
Equipment:
- you must not operate equipment until you have been trained in its use and you are aware of the safe working instructions relating to its operation;
- you must switch off electrical equipment and machinery and unplug it from the energy supply prior to maintenance, repair or cleaning work, or in the event of a fault occurring; and
- only if you have been specifically trained and have read the safe working instructions, should you undertake minor maintenance on appropriate equipment, such as the clearing of jams on copying machines; only appropriate maintenance engineers employed by the manufacturers, or their accredited agents, should undertake general maintenance, repairs, cleaning, or fault rectification.
Accommodation and Upkeep:
- You must keep the premises clean and in a sound and safe structural condition;
- Signs are displayed to identify drinking from non-drinking water;
- All parts of the building used by the staff are adequately heated and ventilated;
- You should not prop fire doors open unless they are held open by automatic means i.e. linked to the fire alarm system.
We are committed to providing a working environment and a shopping experience that protects the health and safety of our people, our customers, and our visitors as far as is reasonably practicable. We meet this commitment through a comprehensive risk management process that ensures the ongoing identification and minimization of occupational health and safety risks across the business.
Effective control measures have been developed and incorporated into our operational procedures including investment in training for all staff. We constantly monitor and review our performance and seek feedback from our people. Every store measures health and safety performance and report on this to their employees, as well as to management. Our aim is to eliminate preventable accidents and ill health associated with our work and premises, and to reduce the rate of reportable accidents as the business grows.
Evaluation of the Tesco safety policy – This policy shows that Tesco take health and safety very seriously. They do expect all employees to stick to the rules of the health and safety laws and do expect employees to take responsibilities for what they do in the workplace. They inform employees that they are not to use any equipment until they have been trained to use it and they are not to move any items that may strain them. I personally think that Tesco’s safety policy is very detailed. I think that Tesco understand it is important to keep not only employees safe but customers and visitors as well. Tesco use signs to identify different safety hazards. The signs Tesco use, what the hazard of each sign is and the precautions needed to be safe are below:
Grievance and disciplinary procedure – Resolving disputes with employees over their rights and responsibilities.
- Disputes are resolved through company policies and procedures on equal opportunities. These are written so that a business can prevent any type of discrimination from happening between different employees. Employees who do not take the business’s policies seriously will be disciplined according to the business’s disciplinary procedure or maybe even dismissed from their job.
- Disputes can be resolved using the company’s grievance procedure. The reason these procedures are there is to help make employees feel confident that they can take action at anytime when they feel they have been unfairly treated.
- Disputes can also be resolved using the company’s disciplinary procedure. This is used if employees are not for filling the terms of there employment contract and for employees that will not take any formal advice. The disciplinary procedure can also be used for a one off serious offence – for example theft.
Grievance Procedures
- The first step is for the employee to approach the head of department/ manager and discuss what has happened and why he/ she thinks he/her has been treated unfairly. If the employee still feels unfairly treated and feels the matter has not been resolved after this he/ she must move on to step to of the grievance procedure.