PREGUNTAS Y RESPUESTAS: Derecho laboral en el contexto empresarial 

Q. ¿Qué debe incluir un contrato de trabajo según la legislación inglesa? 

En virtud de la Empleo Rights Act 1996 (as amended by the Employment Act 2002 and the Good Work Plan reforms of 2020), an employer must provide all employees and workers with a written statement of particulars of employment from the first day of employment. Historically this could be provided within two months of starting work; since April 2020 it must be given on day one. 

La declaración escrita debe incluir como mínimo: 

• Los nombres del empresario y del trabajador. 

• La fecha de inicio del empleo y (si es diferente) la fecha de inicio del empleo continuo. 

• El salario y el intervalo de pago. 

• Horario de trabajo, incluidos los días de la semana y si las horas pueden variar. 

• Holiday entitlement (including public holidays) and holiday pay. 

• En ubicación or locations of work. 

• El cargo o una breve descripción del trabajo. 

• Plazos de preaviso. 

• Probationary period conditions (if any). 

• Baja por enfermedad y derecho a la paga. 

• Cualquier otra prestación (incluidas las prestaciones no contractuales). 

• Whether the employee will work outside the UK for more than one month, and if so on what terms. 

• Details of any training the employer requires the employee to complete. 

Para senior employees, the service agreement will typically go considerably further — covering bonus entitlements, share option rights, garden leave provisions, post-termination restrictions, intellectual property assignment, and disciplinary and grievance procedures. 

Q. ¿Qué es el permiso de jardín y cómo funciona? 

Garden leave is a contractual arrangement by which an employer, having given notice to (or received notice from) an employee, requires the employee to remain at home during their notice period rather than attending work. The employee remains employed and continues to receive full pay and benefits during the garden leave period, but is not required to perform their duties and is typically prohibited from working for a competitor. 

Garden leave serves several comercial purposes for employers: 

• Impide que el empleado acceda a relaciones actuales con clientes, información confidencial e inteligencia comercial durante el periodo de preaviso. 

• It allows client relationships to naturally ‘go cold’ and to be transferred to other team members. 

• Actúa como puente entre el empleo y el inicio de cualquier restricción posterior a la finalización de la relación laboral: el tiempo pasado en excedencia por jardín suele contar a efectos de la duración de los pactos posteriores a la finalización de la relación laboral. 

To be effective, garden leave must be expressly provided for in the employment contract. An employee who has not been given a contractual right to be placed on garden leave cannot generally be kept at home on full pay without their consent — unless the employer is willing to accept the risk of a constructive dismissal claim. 

Es importante señalar que los tribunales tendrán en cuenta el período de excedencia voluntaria ya disfrutado a la hora de evaluar la razonabilidad de las restricciones posteriores a la rescisión. Un período de excedencia de seis meses cumplido en su totalidad antes de que comience una cláusula de no competencia de seis meses puede dar lugar a que se considere que la cláusula de no competencia es más larga de lo razonablemente necesario dadas las circunstancias. 

Q. ¿Qué es el TUPE y cuándo se aplica? 

TUPE — the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 — is the legislation that protects employees’ rights when the business or undertaking in which they work is transferred to a new employer. TUPE applies in two principal scenarios: 

Transferencias de empresas - where a business or part of a business (an ‘economic entity’) is transferred from one employer to another as a going concern. This typically covers an asset sale where the business continues as before under new ownership. 

Cambios en la prestación de servicios - where activities that were previously carried out in-house are outsourced to a contractor, where an outsourced service is re-tendered and a new contractor takes over, or where an outsourced service is brought back in-house. 

When TUPE applies, the employees who are assigned to the transferring business or activity automatically transfer to the new employer on their existing terms and conditions. The new employer inherits the employees and all associated rights and liabilities, including outstanding employment claims. Any dismissal connected with the TUPE transfer is automatically unfair unless it is for an ‘economic, technical or organisational’ (ETO) reason entailing changes in the workforce. 

In the context of a share purchase, TUPE generally does not apply — because the company (and therefore the employer) remains the same; only the shareholders change. However, in an asset sale or in a business restructuring following acquisition, TUPE analysis is essential and should be undertaken before any decision is made about post-transaction staffing. 

Q. ¿Qué es un acuerdo transaccional y cuándo debe firmarlo un empleado? 

A settlement agreement (previously called a compromise agreement) is a legally binding contract between an employer and an employee by which the employee agrees to waive some or all of their legal claims against the employer in exchange for a financial payment and (usually) an agreed reference. Settlement agreements are most commonly used to resolve or avoid employment disputes — most frequently in the context of a redundancy, a performance management process, or a negotiated exit. 

For a settlement agreement to be legally valid and to effectively compromise the employee’s statutory claims, it must: 

• Por escrito. 

• Relate to specific complaints or proceedings. 

• El trabajador debe haber recibido asesoramiento jurídico independiente de un asesor cualificado (normalmente un abogado) sobre los términos y efectos del acuerdo. 

• El asesor debe estar identificado en el acuerdo y debe tener un contrato vigente de seguro de responsabilidad profesional. 

The requirement for independent legal advice is important: an employee must take advice from their own solicitor (paid for by the employer by way of a contribution to legal fees) before signing. An agreement signed without independent advice is not binding. 

Whether an employee should sign a settlement agreement depends entirely on the specific circumstances. The financial terms, the employee’s prospects in an employment tribunal, the value of any outstanding claims, the quality of the reference and any tax treatment of the payment are all factors to weigh carefully. Employees should always take specialist advice before signing — the contribution to legal fees provided by the employer is specifically intended to fund this. 

Q. ¿Cuáles son las consecuencias de despedir a un empleado sin seguir un proceso justo? 

Dismissing an employee without a fair process — or without a fair reason — exposes the employer to claims in the Employment Tribunal and, potentially, the civil courts. The primary risks are: 

Unfair dismissal — Los trabajadores con dos o más años de empleo ininterrumpido tienen derecho a no ser despedidos de forma improcedente. Para que un despido sea procedente es necesario que exista un motivo sustantivo justo (como el despido, la mala conducta, la capacidad o la ilegalidad) y un procedimiento justo (que siga el Código de Buenas Prácticas sobre Procedimientos Disciplinarios y de Reclamación del ACAS). Si el tribunal considera que el despido es improcedente, puede conceder una indemnización básica (calculada en función de la edad, el salario y la antigüedad del trabajador) y una indemnización compensatoria (cuyo límite máximo es el más bajo de 52 semanas de salario o 115.115 libras esterlinas en abril de 2025). 

Wrongful dismissal — if the employee is dismissed without notice (or without pay in lieu of notice) in circumstances that do not justify summary dismissal, they have a claim for wrongful dismissal — essentially a breach of contract claim for the notice pay they were owed. Wrongful dismissal claims can be brought in the Employment Tribunal (up to £25,000) or the civil courts (no cap). 

Loss of restrictive covenants — as described in the chapter on restrictive covenants, a repudiatory breach of contract (including a wrongful dismissal) may render post-termination restrictions unenforceable. This can be a highly significant commercial consequence, particularly where the departing employee is a key person with valuable client relationships or access to sensitive business information.