Offices

Short-Term

Short-term office space is readily available throughout London. Short-term serviced offices work out at, on average, approximately £26 per work station, per day. This includes all utilities (except telephone), reception facilities, connectivity solutions, meeting rooms, etc.

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Commercial Agents

Long-term office space is easily available throughout London, so it is worth shopping around. Pay particular attention to transport links. The cost averages out at between £45 and £65 per square foot, per year, on top of which there is always a service charge of £7-£9 per square foot, plus business rates, which is another £10-£17 on top of that.

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Staff

Staff of every linguistic and technical capability are available in London. It is best to use a recruitment agency, although you can take total responsibility for recruitment and place an advert in a newspaper – for instance, the Evening Standard, Guardian, Daily Telegraph or Times.

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Employment Law
UK employment law aims to encourage a flexible labour market, with the current government supporting further business-friendly changes to the law.

There are two major ways in which small businesses contract staff in the UK:

As “employees” – these are individuals who work under a standard contract of employment.

As “freelance contractors” – these are self-employed contractors rather than employees, selling a “service” rather than their own “services” and working on a project-fee basis rather than for a regular salary. Individuals working in this way are not entitled to holiday or sick pay, and are responsible for their own taxes and national insurance. They do not use the client’s equipment or office facilities and are free to dictate their own working hours. A contractor is entitled to work for more than one client at a time.

The following points are basic features of UK employment law:

• The statutory minimum wage is £4.20 per hour for workers over the age of 22, and £3.60 per hour for workers aged 18 to 21. Visit the DTI website  for more details;
   
• All employees are entitled to sick pay and four weeks paid holiday funded by the employer. All female employees are entitled to maternity benefits, which are administered by the Government in conjunction with the employer. Additionally, there are eight days of paid leave and public holidays per year;
   
• The employer is responsible for paying National Insurance (social security) contributions on behalf of all employees. The amount payable is 11.8% on earnings over £89 per week. Employees also contribute up to 10% of gross salary, with a ceiling of £2990;
   
• Overtime payments are unregulated and standard practice varies according to sector. Many employers pay overtime at time-and-a-half on weekdays and double time at weekends;
   
• Working Time Regulations stipulate that the maximum average hours over a 17-week period should not exceed 48 hours per week. The regulations do not apply to senior management (autonomous decision makers) and to those who have signed an “opt-out” agreement with their employer. There are special provisions for rest periods and night workers. For more information on the European Working Time Directive visit the DTI website;
   
• Part-time or fixed-term workers cannot be treated less favourably than full-time workers. Whilst there is no “right” to work part-time, for women returning from maternity leave employers will only be justified in rare circumstances in refusing a request to work part-time. Fixed-term contracts cannot be used to prevent employees acquiring employment protection rights, but may be used to exclude redundancy payouts;
   
• The statutory minimum period of notice for anyone with less than two year’s service is one week. This increases by one week for every year worked, up to a maximum of twelve weeks notice. For employees, the notice period is always one week, unless otherwise stipulated in an employment contract;
   
• Pregnant employees are legally entitled to 26 weeks' ordinary paid maternity leave, regardless of how long they have worked for their employer. Women who have completed 26 weeks’ continuous employment prior to the beginning of the 14th week before their EWC (expected week of childbirth) can take additional unpaid maternity leave of a further 26 weeks. Both parents additionally have a right to 13 weeks unpaid leave if a child is less than five years old;
   
• All employees are protected from discrimination on the basis of sex, race, or disability. They are also protected from unfair dismissal or wrongful dismissal.

For further information regarding employment law,

please refer to:

Department of Trade and Industry (DTi) Enquiry Unit 1 Victoria Street London SW1H OET Tel: +44 (0) 20 7215 5000 E-mail: dti.enquiries@dti.qsi.gov.uk Websites: www.tiger.gov.uk – a user-friendly guide to UK employment law for employers and employees; www.dti.gov.uk – more extensive, but not as straightforward as www.tiger.gov.uk. The DTi website is the standard guide to UK employment law.
Inland Revenue www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/nic Refer to this website for information on employers’ National Insurance contributions. Also visit the site for details of your local Inland Revenue Enquiry Centre.
The Federation of European Employers Adam House 7-10 Adam Street The Strand London WC2N 6AA Tel: +44 (0) 20 7520 9264 Fax: +44 (0) 1359 269 900 E-mail: info@fedee.com Website: www.fedee.com The Federation of European Employers offers a useful free website as well as members-only advice, country-by-country guides to employment law, pay and industrial relations, and employment law seminars.

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Employment Law for US Citizens Working for US Companies Abroad

Under the Civil Rights Act of 1991, all US citizens working for US companies, or their subsidiaries abroad, are protected by US federal anti-discrimination laws.

The “extraterritorial” application of US federal anti-discrimination laws means that US companies and their subsidiaries abroad cannot make any adverse employment decisions based on an employee’s race, colour, national origin, religion, gender, age (above 40) or disability. This protection is in addition to the protection, if any, afforded to employees by the laws of the country in which they work.

For example, if an African-American US citizen employed by a US company in the UK is fired because of his race, he would likely be protected by US federal laws against race discrimination. He may also be protected by UK laws against race discrimination and unfair dismissal.

US federal anti-discrimination laws also prohibit employers from “retaliating” against, or “victimising”, an employee for protesting acts of discrimination, even if that employee is not himself or herself being discriminated against. For example, a white, male US citizen working for a US company in Hong Kong would likely be protected by US federal anti-discrimination laws if he is refused a promotion in retaliation for protesting the company’s policy of not hiring Asian women. Although the employee himself may not have suffered directly from the company’s discriminatory acts, US federal anti-discrimination laws protect him for “blowing the whistle”.

The time limitation scheme for bringing a claim or complaint under US federal anti-discrimination laws is quite complex. Depending on the circumstances, such claims must be brought between 180 and 300 days after the discriminatory or retaliatory act complained of. Because of the complex nature of the statutory scheme, any employee with a claim or complaint under US federal anti-discrimination laws should seek legal advice as soon as possible.

For further information on employment issues regarding US expatriates, visit www.eeoc.gov.

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