Unit 14
Understanding the Impact of legislation
In this task I am going to look at 3 different legislations/regulation and analyse the impact of the
legislations on British Airways and on the individual for both permanent and temporary contracts.
An employment contract is drawn up once the employee has accepted the job. It is a legal
requirement to have an employment contract which applies to the employee directly. For example,
it is a legal requirement to make sure that every employment contract includes minimum wage,
flexible working provisions and disability provisions.
Permanent contracts
The first legislation I am going to be looking at is the Equal Pay Act 1970. The Equal Pay Act 1970 is a
legislation introduced by parliament to stop the discrimination between men and women in the
work place.1 This act stops one gender from earning more money purely because of their gender.
This act was introduced because before 1970 men and woman would do the same jobs but men
were being paid a lot higher. The recent change in the act is that The Equal Pay Act was repealed but
its substantive provisions were replicated in the Equal Pay Act 2010. The impact of this act on British
airways is that they would have to increase the wages of employees if they have been discriminating
against one gender. This could lead to BA having to increase the costs they have for employees. The
amount that each employee is earning would then need to be on their contact. A positive impact of
the act on BA is that their staff are more likely to work harder as they are being paid a fair amount of
money which means that the running’s of BA would be much smoother. A negative impact of the act
is that all their permanent contracts have to be changed as the wages would be different. This can
be time consuming for BA.
The second legislation I am going to be looking at is Employment Rights Act 1996. The act was
created to protect individual’s rights in UK labour law. An example of this law is that woman in the
work place are entitled to have 52 weeks leave from work. Employees can be eligible for SMP for up
to 39 weeks. 2The impact on BA is that they would have to hire temporary staff because their
permanent staff may be on maternity leave. This leads to British airways having to pay more money
on staff wages as they would have to pay the new employee as well as the permanent staff. A
positive impact of the Employment Right Act 1996 on BA is that it means that they are able to set a
certain amount of holiday pay (24 days) on their permanent contracts so that staff know exactly how
many days they get paid for. A negative impact for BA is that it means that they are going to have to
make sure that they pay employees for any holidays that they take as long as it is within 24 days.
This can become expensive for British airways as they have thousands of employees.
The final legislation I am going to be looking at is the Race Relations Act 1976. 3This act stated that it
is illegal for a business to discriminate against someone based upon their race, ethnic group or the
colour of their skin. The act now comes under one big act known as the Equality Act 2010. The
Equality Act 2010 covers a number of different legislations that have been combined to make the
work place fair. The impact of this act on BA is that it puts pressure on the business to make sure
that they are treating all employees fair and are not prioritising one race because this can lead to
employees complaining about them feeling discriminated at work. A positive impact of this act on
BA is that it allows a number of employees to be hired of different ethnic backgrounds. This will give
BA a good public image as they are going to be seen as diverse which means that they will increase
1
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1970/41/contents
2
https://www.gov.uk/employers-maternity-pay-leave/entitlement
3
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1976/74/contents
Understanding the Impact of legislation
In this task I am going to look at 3 different legislations/regulation and analyse the impact of the
legislations on British Airways and on the individual for both permanent and temporary contracts.
An employment contract is drawn up once the employee has accepted the job. It is a legal
requirement to have an employment contract which applies to the employee directly. For example,
it is a legal requirement to make sure that every employment contract includes minimum wage,
flexible working provisions and disability provisions.
Permanent contracts
The first legislation I am going to be looking at is the Equal Pay Act 1970. The Equal Pay Act 1970 is a
legislation introduced by parliament to stop the discrimination between men and women in the
work place.1 This act stops one gender from earning more money purely because of their gender.
This act was introduced because before 1970 men and woman would do the same jobs but men
were being paid a lot higher. The recent change in the act is that The Equal Pay Act was repealed but
its substantive provisions were replicated in the Equal Pay Act 2010. The impact of this act on British
airways is that they would have to increase the wages of employees if they have been discriminating
against one gender. This could lead to BA having to increase the costs they have for employees. The
amount that each employee is earning would then need to be on their contact. A positive impact of
the act on BA is that their staff are more likely to work harder as they are being paid a fair amount of
money which means that the running’s of BA would be much smoother. A negative impact of the act
is that all their permanent contracts have to be changed as the wages would be different. This can
be time consuming for BA.
The second legislation I am going to be looking at is Employment Rights Act 1996. The act was
created to protect individual’s rights in UK labour law. An example of this law is that woman in the
work place are entitled to have 52 weeks leave from work. Employees can be eligible for SMP for up
to 39 weeks. 2The impact on BA is that they would have to hire temporary staff because their
permanent staff may be on maternity leave. This leads to British airways having to pay more money
on staff wages as they would have to pay the new employee as well as the permanent staff. A
positive impact of the Employment Right Act 1996 on BA is that it means that they are able to set a
certain amount of holiday pay (24 days) on their permanent contracts so that staff know exactly how
many days they get paid for. A negative impact for BA is that it means that they are going to have to
make sure that they pay employees for any holidays that they take as long as it is within 24 days.
This can become expensive for British airways as they have thousands of employees.
The final legislation I am going to be looking at is the Race Relations Act 1976. 3This act stated that it
is illegal for a business to discriminate against someone based upon their race, ethnic group or the
colour of their skin. The act now comes under one big act known as the Equality Act 2010. The
Equality Act 2010 covers a number of different legislations that have been combined to make the
work place fair. The impact of this act on BA is that it puts pressure on the business to make sure
that they are treating all employees fair and are not prioritising one race because this can lead to
employees complaining about them feeling discriminated at work. A positive impact of this act on
BA is that it allows a number of employees to be hired of different ethnic backgrounds. This will give
BA a good public image as they are going to be seen as diverse which means that they will increase
1
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1970/41/contents
2
https://www.gov.uk/employers-maternity-pay-leave/entitlement
3
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1976/74/contents
