Law queries

I know that you have the right to time off to look for alternative work if you are under notice of redundancy. Do workers coming to the end of their probationary period also have this right?

Statutory rights to time off to look for alternative work are only available to employees under notice of redundancy. The law says that an employee with at least two years' service "who is given notice of dismissal by reason of redundancy" has the right to take "reasonable time off during the employee's working hours" to look for new employment or to make arrangements for training for future employment. This is the only circumstance in which statutory time off rights apply to looking for alternative work. An employee coming up to the end of their probation would be unlikely to have any rights to paid time off, unless the probation period was very long. In addition the job would have to be coming to an end because of redundancy, not because the employee has failed to complete successfully the probation.

* More information: Section 52 Employment Rights Act 1996; LRD booklet, Redundancy law - a trade unionists' guide (2002)