Most workers - whether part-time or full-time - are entitled to four weeks' paid annual leave.

A week's leave should allow workers to be away from work for a week - ie it should be the same amount of time as the working week. If a worker does a five-day week, he or she is entitled to 20 days leave. If he or she does a three-day week, the entitlement is 12 days leave.

There is no statutory right to have bank holidays off as paid leave. They may be part of the four weeks leave - some employment contracts deal with bank holidays separately. Workers must give their employer notice that they want to take leave.

Employers can set the times that workers take their leave, for example for a Christmas shutdown.

If a worker's employment ends, he or she has a right to be paid for the leave time due and not taken.

An employee is entitled to a period of 26 weeks ordinary maternity leave, regardless of her length of service. To qualify, she must tell her employer by the end of the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth:

• That she is pregnant
• the expected week of childbirth, by means of a medical certificate if requested
• the date she intends to start maternity leave. This can normally be any date which is no earlier than the beginning of the 11th week before the expected week of childbirth up to the birth.

An employee must then write to the employer, within 28 days of her notification, setting out her return date. The employee can change this date if she gives her employer 28 days' notice.

During the 26 weeks maternity leave, she is entitled to benefit from all her normal terms and conditions of employment, except for remuneration (monetary wages or salary). At the end of it, she has the right to return to her original job. If a redundancy situation arises, she must be offered a suitable alternative vacancy if one is available. If the employer cannot offer suitable alternative work, she may be entitled to redundancy pay.

Employees who:

• have or expect to have responsibility for the child's upbringing
• are the biological father of the child or the mother's husband or partner and
• have worked continuously for their employer for 26 weeks ending with the 15th week before the baby is due or the end of the week in which the child's adopter is notified of being matched with the child can choose to take either one week or two consecutive weeks' paid paternity leave (not odd days). This must be completed:
• within 56 days of the actual date of birth of the child, or
• if the child is born early, within the period from the actual date of birth up to 56 days after the first day of the week in which the birth was expected.

Employees have the right to return to the same job after paternity leave. Most employees are entitled to Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) from their employers

The Race Relations Act 1976 (as amended) makes it illegal to treat a person less favourably than others on racial grounds.

Race discrimination covers all aspects of employment - from recruitment to pay, and training to the termination of a contract. Discrimination covers four areas:

1. Direct discrimination - treating someone less favourably on racial grounds
2. Indirect discrimination - applying practices that might favour one racial group over another
3. Harassment - unwanted conduct that violates a person's dignity and creates a hostile or degrading environment
4. Victimisation - unfair treatment of an employee who has made a complaint about racial discrimination.

However, a job may be restricted to people of a particular race or ethnic or national origin, if one of these characteristics is a genuine occupational requirement. A genuine occupational requirement may apply in limited circumstances - for example, to achieve authenticity a theatre company may need black actors to depict certain scenes.

Workers are entitled to be paid at least the level of the statutory National Minimum Wage (NMW) for every hour they work for an employer. From 1 October 2004:

Main (adult) rate for workers aged 22 and over
£4.85 per hour from 1 October 2004 (an increase from £4.50 an hour)

Development rate for workers aged 18-21 inclusive
£4.10 per hour from 1 October 2004 (an increase from £3.80 an hour)

NB: The development rate can also apply to workers aged 22 and above during their first 6 months in a new job with a new employer and who are receiving accredited training.

A new rate for 16 and 17 year olds

The Government has accepted the Low Pay Commission's recommendations for a new rate for 16 and 17 year olds (above compulsory school leaving age).*

£3.00 per hour from 1 October 2004

NB: 16 and 17 year old apprentices will be exempt from the new young workers rate.

Employees have the right to a lump-sum 'redundancy payment' if they are dismissed because of redundancy. The amount is related to the employee's age, length of continuous service with the employer, and weekly pay up to a maximum. The employer must also provide a written statement showing how the payment has been calculated; at or before the time it is paid.

Any dispute about whether a redundancy payment is due, or about its size, can be determined by an employment tribunal.

If the employer has cash-flow problems so serious that making the redundancy payment would put the future of the business at serious risk, the Redundancy Payments Service (RPS) can arrange to pay the employee direct from the National Insurance Fund. If the employer is insolvent, the RPS makes the payment and the debt is recovered from the assets of the business.

Employees have the right not to be unfairly dismissed. In most circumstances they must have at least one year's continuous service before they can make a complaint to an employment tribunal. However, there is no length of service requirement in relation to 'automatically unfair grounds' (see below). Also, the requirement is reduced to one month for employees claiming to have been dismissed on medical grounds as a consequence of certain health and safety requirements that should have led to suspension with pay rather than to dismissal.

A complaint of unfair dismissal must be received by an employment tribunal within three months of the effective date of termination of the employment (usually the date of leaving the job) unless the tribunal considers this was not reasonably practicable.

If both the employer and employee agree, instead of going to an employment tribunal, the case may be heard by an arbitrator under the Acas Arbitration Scheme.

If a tribunal establishes that a dismissal has taken place it is normally for the employer to show that it was for a fair reason and that they have, as a minimum, followed the statutory disciplinary procedures. In such cases the tribunal must then decide whether, in the circumstances, the employer acted reasonably in treating that reason as sufficient for dismissal.