3. Pay and conditions

An individual’s pay and conditions are contained in their contract of employment, but they are subject to some minimum statutory rights and protection, including the right to paid annual leave. An employer is not entitled to provide contractual terms that are worse than the statutory minimum.

Workers are entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks of paid statutory holiday a year under the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR). Four weeks of this derived from the EU Working Time Directive (WTD) and the additional 1.6 weeks were introduced by UK legislation (the Working Time (Amendment) Regulations 2007) following union campaigning. The additional weeks incorporated the 8 days of bank and public holidays into the statutory minimum entitlement.

Workers have the right to receive a minimum wage under the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 (NMWA). The detail is set out in the National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015 (NMWR), which consolidates all NMW regulations since its introduction in 1999.