| 释义 |
continuous employment
The period for which a person’s employment in the same business has subsisted. Under the Employment Rights Act 1996, employees will only have the right to claim certain statutory remedies if they have been continuously employed by the same employer for the required (minimum) periods. The required period of continuous employment necessary to bring an unfair dismissal action if employment began after April 2012 is two years, unless it is for an automatically unfair inadmissible reason, in which case no minimum period applies. There is no minimum period required where dismissal is because of the employee’s political beliefs, but such a dismissal is not automatically unfair, and the employer may seek to justify it as being reasonable. The right of employees to statutory redundancy payments and to guarantee payments arises after two years’ and one month’s continuous employment respectively. The statutory minimum period of notice to terminate an employee’s contract also depends on his period of continuous employment in the business. When a business changes ownership as a going concern, the employee’s period of continuous employment under both the old and the new employer counts in calculating the total (see relevant transfer). When an employee is unjustifiably dismissed without notice, the minimum notice to which he was entitled under the statute is added to the actual period of employment in calculating whether or not he has served the minimum continuous period. Part-time employees are subject to the same rules as full-time employees (see part-time worker). Periods during which an employee was on strike do not break the continuity, but are excluded from his total period of continuous employment. Continuity is not broken when a woman is absent due to pregnancy or childbirth, provided she takes up her right to return to work (see maternity rights). |