Looking for work
When applying for a job, it's important to know what your rights are during the process.
Our section Job applications and interviews looks at the types of things it's OK for potential employers to ask you during the recruitment process – as well as what's not OK.
To learn more about the types of checks you can expect employers to make about you when offering you a job (e.g. criminal records checks, health questionnaires, the right to work in the UK), see our section on References and checks.
Our section on Job offers gives information about what you can expect from a job offer and what your rights are if things don't go according to plan.
Law Guide
- Employees' rights
- Employment contracts
- Working hours
- Pay
- Discrimination (England, Wales and Scotland)
- Discrimination in the workplace
- Racial discrimination
- Sex discrimination and equal pay
- Age discrimination
- Bullying in the workplace
- Disability discrimination
- Human rights in the workplace
- Religion or belief discrimination
- Marital status
- Pregnancy and maternity
- Gender reassignment
- Sexual orientation discrimination
- Sexual harassment (England, Wales and Scotland)
- Preventing harassment (England, Wales and Scotland)
- Discrimination (Northern Ireland)
- Health and safety
- Pregnancy at work
- Shared parental leave and pay
- Paternity leave and pay
- Bereaved partner's paternity leave (England, Wales and Scotland)
- Neonatal care leave and pay
- Parental bereavement leave and pay
- Adoption leave & pay
- Parental leave
- Emergency dependant leave
- Carer's leave (England, Wales and Scotland)
- Data protection
- The Employment Rights Act 2025 (England, Wales and Scotland)
- December 2025
- February 2026
- April 2026
- October 2026
- End of 2026
- January 2027
- 2027
- Protections from dismissal for new mothers
- Gender equality requirements
- Trade union blacklists
- Umbrella companies
- Collective redundancy changes
- Flexible working changes
- Bereavement leave expansion
- Non-disclosure of misconduct involving harassment or discrimination
- Guaranteed hours for zero-hour, low-hour & agency workers
- New shift work obligations
- Looking for work
- Workplace disputes