UK Employment Law\ Employer & Employee\ Human Rights Act
Human Rights Act 1998
The Act received royal assent 9th November 1998 and came into force 2nd October 2000.
The Act gives UK law ‘further effect’ to European Convention rights and makes a remedy for breach of the Act available in UK courts. The remedy avoids the need to take a case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Essentially, this Act protects parts of your life and keeps them private. This has an impact on how you choose to live outside of the working environment, and allows you control over information about you.
It also impacts on certain elements of your life within the working environment. It allows you privacy on private email, for example. However, there are other points you need to be aware of regarding internet and email usage at work. We have a separate section on this.
Here are the main points of interest within the Act:
Article 8: Right to privacy
(1) Everyone has the right for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.
(2) There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.
Article 10: Freedom of Expression
(1) Everyone has the right of freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without inference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.
(2) The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.
Article 14: Discrimination
The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this convention shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status.
