In most cases, it is not the breach of legislation that comes back to bite employers but their supposed actions or inactions. While the EU Directives and domestic legislations on employment law generally are clear in terms of their provisions, employers are often caught and forced to pay compensation to employees because they inadvertently ignore to adhere to their own policies and handbook documents or inconsistently apply them. Arguably, employers tend to focus on hard law –described in this article as core EU Directives, statutory provisions and instruments but pay little or no attention to their respective company policy/handbook documents. Surprisingly, some do not even have policy documents at all!

Examples of policies companies should include at least are as