Key terms & definitions

A person who works for a business in return for pay.

Taking unfair advantage of workers, for example through inadequate pay, unsafe conditions or unreasonable demands.

An employee’s willingness or desire to put effort into their work and achieve goals.

How effectively an employee carries out their work, including the quantity and quality of their output and their reliability.

Keeping existing employees working for the business rather than losing them to other employers.

An organisation that represents employers’ shared interests and may provide advice, support and a collective voice in discussions with government.

Being engaged in paid work, whether as an employee or through self-employment.

An organisation that supplies workers, often for temporary vacancies. In this arrangement, the business pays the agency, which pays the worker.

Laws protecting workers’ rights and governing how employers treat them.

Laws that set rules for how employers recruit and treat people at work.

The proportion of a specified population, usually working-age people, who are in paid work.

The distribution of employment between the primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary sectors, usually expressed as percentages of total employment.

A legal body that hears disputes concerning employment rights, including discrimination claims.

An independent legal body that hears employment disputes and makes decisions about claims such as discrimination or unfair dismissal.

An official document used under the 1962 Commonwealth Immigrants Act to authorise entry into Britain for work.

Gaining confidence, agency or the ability to influence one’s own life and wider society.

The teaching that things lack an independent, permanent nature; it does not mean that nothing exists.

A parental household in which the children have left home.

A couple whose children have become adults and left the family home.

A marriage in which the couple remain together even though their emotional relationship has broken down.

The breaking of large fat droplets into smaller droplets, increasing their total surface area.

The breakdown of large fat droplets into smaller droplets, increasing the total surface area available to lipase.

The formation of a mixture in which small droplets of one liquid are dispersed through another liquid that does not normally mix with it.

A substance that helps liquids which normally separate, such as oil and water, form a mixture.

A cloudy mixture of tiny droplets of one liquid dispersed through another liquid.

A mixture in which tiny droplets of one liquid are dispersed through another. A cloudy emulsion is a positive result in the ethanol test for lipids.

A mixture of two normally immiscible liquids, with droplets of one dispersed through the other.

A law passed in March 1933 that allowed Hitler’s government to make laws without the Reichstag’s approval, including laws that departed from the constitution.

The application of powdered glass to metal, followed by heating so that the glass fuses into a continuous surface layer.

Completely enclosing paper or board between plastic films that seal together beyond all its edges, protecting both its faces and edges.