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Employment Law: An Introduction cover

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Law

Employment Law: An Introduction

Stephen Taylor; Astra Emir

An accessible introduction to UK employment law by Stephen Taylor, a human resource management academic, and Astra Emir, a barrister. It explains the rights and obligations of employers and employees through the contract of employment, statutory employment rights and discrimination law, linking the rules to workplace practice and contemporary debates.

Prerequisites: No prior study of law is required; the book explains legal sources and institutions from the start.

Difficulty Level
Beginner
Academic Level
Undergraduate
employment lawunfair dismissaldiscriminationequality actcontract of employmentTextbook

01 / Reading Guide

Reading Guide

Citation

Taylor, S., & Emir, A. (2025). Employment Law: An Introduction (6th ed.). Sage.

Chapter Summary

The sixth edition runs to 31 chapters in about 660–690 pages. It is the first edition published by Sage; the first five appeared with Oxford University Press, the fifth in 2019, and Sage presents the new one as a twentieth-anniversary edition. The publisher's update notes say the text has been revised for recent case law and for the Employment Rights Act 2025, and that it adds material on protected characteristics, unconscious bias, AI and discriminatory algorithms, types of leave, flexible working, data protection, privacy and monitoring, and the post-Brexit settlement. The authors are Stephen Taylor, Associate Professor in HRM at the University of Exeter Business School, and Astra Emir, a barrister and visiting lecturer at City University.

Part 1, Chapters 1–3: The rise of employment law; Sources of employment law and institutions; Barriers to employment rights

The opening part explains where employment law came from, which sources and institutions make and apply it, and what stands between a worker and the rights the law formally grants. It is the part that makes the book usable by readers with no legal training.

Part 2, Chapters 4–6: Unfair dismissal—reasons and remedies; Unfair dismissal—Reasonableness; Redundancy

Dismissal comes first in the treatment of the employment relationship. Two chapters divide unfair dismissal into the reasons an employer may rely on, with the remedies available, and the test of whether dismissal was reasonable; a third covers redundancy.

Part 2, Chapters 7–9: Contractual employment rights; Implied terms; Wrongful and constructive dismissal

The rest of Part 2 turns to the contract itself: rights that arise from its terms, terms implied into it, and the two forms of dismissal that rest on contract, wrongful dismissal and constructive dismissal.

Part 3, Chapters 10–11: Introducing discrimination law; The Equality Act 2010: key concepts

Discrimination law is the largest part of the book. It opens with an introduction to the field and a chapter on the core concepts of the Equality Act 2010, which the chapters on individual characteristics then apply.

Part 3, Chapters 12–19: Age, disability, race, religious and sex discrimination; Sex-related characteristics; Equal pay; Discrimination against atypical workers

One chapter each covers age, disability, race, religion and sex. Chapter 17 groups gender reassignment, marital status, pregnancy and sexual orientation, Chapter 18 treats equal pay, and Chapter 19 covers the protection of atypical workers.

Part 4, Chapters 20–23: Family-Friendly Statutes and Flexible Working; Wages and benefits; Privacy and confidentiality; TUPE

A part on employment policy and practice gathers the statutory regimes an employer meets in day-to-day management: family-friendly rights and flexible working (the latter added to the chapter title in this edition), pay and benefits, privacy and confidentiality, and the transfer of undertakings rules (TUPE).

Part 5, Chapters 24–26: Health and safety—the criminal law; Health and safety—The civil law; Working time

Health and safety is divided between criminal liability and civil liability, followed by a chapter on working time.

Part 6, Chapters 27–29: Freedom of association; Consultation and bargaining; Industrial action

Collective employment law covers trade union membership and freedom of association, information, consultation and collective bargaining, and the law of industrial action.

Chapters 30–31: Employment Tribunal Procedure; Preparing and presenting a case

The book ends with two practical chapters on how employment tribunals work and how a case is prepared and presented. In the fifth edition these formed a separate part, "Employment Law in Action", which Oxford University Press described as distinctive; the Sage contents listing places them after Part 6 without a separate part heading.

Key Concepts

Foundations and the contract of employment (Chapters 1–9)

  • Sources and institutions: the legislation, case law and bodies, including tribunals, through which employment law is made and enforced.
  • Barriers to employment rights: the gap between the rights the law grants and the workers who can actually claim them.
  • Unfair dismissal: the statutory claim that turns on the employer's reason for dismissing and on whether dismissal was reasonable.
  • Implied terms: obligations read into the contract of employment even though the parties never wrote them down.
  • Wrongful and constructive dismissal: dismissal in breach of contract, and resignation in response to the employer's breach.

Discrimination law (Chapters 10–19)

  • Equality Act 2010: the statute whose key concepts frame every protected characteristic covered in the part.
  • Protected characteristics: age, disability, race, religion, sex and the sex-related characteristics treated one by one.
  • Equal pay: the specific regime for pay differences between men and women.
  • Atypical workers: people outside standard full-time employment and the protection the law gives them.

Policy, health and safety, and collective law (Chapters 20–31)

  • Family-friendly rights and flexible working: statutory leave and the right to request different working patterns.
  • TUPE: the rules that protect employees when a business or service transfers to a new employer.
  • Working time: statutory limits on hours and entitlements to rest and holiday.
  • Collective bargaining and industrial action: the legal framework for trade unions, consultation and lawful strikes.
  • Employment tribunal procedure: how claims are brought, prepared and heard.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

  • Written for non-lawyers. Oxford University Press described the fifth edition as written with human resources and business students in mind, suitable for CIPD courses, conversational and contextual in style and explaining the law in plain language with supporting examples; Sage describes the sixth as a clear, accessible introduction designed to demystify complex topics. A comment quoted by the publisher, from Stephen Dale of the University of Surrey, says the style supports an awareness and application of the essential principles for HR, business and management students.
  • Practical features. The fifth-edition description mentions activities placed through the text that present realistic problems for applying the rules, and "Exhibit" boxes on significant cases and academic debates.
  • Practice-oriented coverage. Beyond the contract and discrimination, the book gives whole chapters to the matters that HR practice turns on, such as TUPE, privacy, working time and health and safety in both criminal and civil law, and it ends with two chapters on tribunal procedure and presenting a case.
  • Current law. The sixth edition is revised for the Employment Rights Act 2025 and for post-Brexit developments, and adds topics such as algorithmic discrimination and workplace monitoring.

Limitations

  • Business-school audience rather than a law degree. The stated audience is HRM, business and CIPD students. Law students taking an employment law module will find it a clear first account but will need a law-school text for depth of case analysis and statutory detail.
  • A moving target. The publisher's own notes describe the Employment Rights Act 2025 as legislation that would "soon" be in force at the time of writing, so parts of the text describe law that was still taking effect; readers should check later developments against current official guidance.
  • UK law only. The publisher presents the book as an introduction to UK employment law; readers studying another jurisdiction, or comparative labour law, will need other texts.

Where It Fits in the Course

Among the labour law books on this list, this is the most practical starting point for students without a legal background. Perspectives on Labour Law by Anne Davies is a short introduction that reads the subject through historical, economic and human rights perspectives; it pairs well with this book, which supplies the rules while Davies supplies the arguments about them. The Cambridge Labour Law by Hugh Collins and co-authors and the Hart Labour Law by Simon Deakin and co-authors are law-school textbooks that set the rules in historical and critical context; they are the natural next step for law students, with more room for the development of the law, its regulatory strategies and collective rights.

Smith & Wood's Employment Law is a detailed account of statute and case law across individual and collective employment law, best used as a reference when this book's treatment of a topic is not enough. Freedland and Kountouris's The Legal Construction of Personal Work Relations is a research monograph questioning whether the contract of employment is the right frame for the subject; it is for advanced study and makes most sense after Chapters 7–9 and 19 here.

How to Use This Book

The book suits HRM, business management and CIPD students meeting employment law for the first time, and law students who want an accessible overview before tackling a law-school textbook. No legal knowledge is assumed; Part 1 supplies the basics of sources and institutions.

A practical reading plan:

  • Start with Part 1 (Chapters 1–3), even if pressed for time. Chapter 3 on barriers to rights explains why formal rights and real outcomes diverge, a theme that recurs throughout.
  • Core for most modules: Chapters 4–9 on dismissal and the contract, then Chapters 10–11 on the Equality Act's key concepts. Read the specific discrimination chapters (12–19) that the course covers; Chapter 11 should come first in any case.
  • For HR practice: Chapters 20–26 cover the regimes most often met in day-to-day management. Choose by need: TUPE (Chapter 23) for restructuring, privacy (Chapter 22) for monitoring and data, health and safety and working time (Chapters 24–26) for operational roles.
  • Collective law: Chapters 27–29 are essential where the course covers trade unions and industrial action, and optional in a module focused on individual rights.
  • Finish with Chapters 30–31 to see how a claim moves through a tribunal; they work well alongside a visit to a tribunal hearing or a moot.

Work through the in-text activities as they arise rather than skipping to the summaries; they are the book's main way of turning rules into judgment. Because employment law is changing quickly after the Employment Rights Act 2025, check each topic against the current legislation and official guidance from GOV.UK and Acas before relying on it in coursework or practice. Lecturers using the book can obtain a teaching guide and multiple-choice questions from the publisher's companion site.