Guarantee Payment

English Legal System: Guarantee Payment

In the context of the English law, A Dictionary of Law provides the following legal concept of Guarantee Payment : Under the Employment Rights Act 1996, the sum that an employer must pay to an employee for whom he is unable to provide work during the whole of any working day or shift. However, an employee is not entitled to a guarantee payment if he is laid off because of industrial action affecting his own or an associated employer, if he unreasonably refuses other suitable work, or if he fails to comply with the employer’s reasonable requirements for ensuring that he is available for work if and when needed. Generally, employees only become entitled to a guarantee payment after four weeks’ *continuous employment in the business; one employed for a specific task that is not expected to last more than 12 weeks and one having a fixed-term employment contract of a year or less do not qualify at all. The payment is limited to the employee’s basic wage for the relevant shift, subject to a maximum prescribed by regulations made by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and reviewed annually. An employee is not entitled to more than five guarantee payments in any period of three months. The statutory payment is offset by any amount payable to the employee under his employment contract while he is laid off. An employee may complain to an employment tribunal if his employer fails to pay him any sum due as a guarantee payment, and the tribunal can order the employer to pay the sum due.