ABSTRACT
Doctors in general practice will be familiar with factors to be borne in mind when employing staff. For consultants this may be unfamiliar territory. They may have management responsibility for the staff under their supervision in a National Health Service (NHS) hospital, but they will have no need to concern themselves with the responsibilities owed to those employees by the employing hospital or health authority. The law confers certain employment rights on all employees who work 16 or more hours a week and have two years' continuous service, and employees who work between eight and 16 hours a week and have five years' continuous service. A contract of employment exists as soon as an employee shows his or her acceptance of the employer's terms and conditions of employment by starting work, and both employer and employee are bound by the terms offered and accepted.
