Senior Researcher (Employment law & policy)

Job summary

As a Senior Researcher (Employment Law & Policy) in the House of Commons Library, you’ll play a vital role in helping MPs and their staff navigate some of the most complex and fast‑moving areas of public policy. Working within the Business and Transport Section, you’ll use your specialist knowledge of employment law, industrial relations and labour market systems to produce authoritative, impartial research that supports parliamentary scrutiny and constituency casework.

Job description

You’ll brief MPs on key legislative developments, prepare research papers on topical issues, and respond to confidential enquiries from Members’ offices. This is a rare opportunity to apply your expertise in a role where your analysis directly supports UK democracy and informs debates that shape the lives of millions. You’ll also build relationships across Parliament, including with Select Committees, the statistics team and POST, while contributing to a highly respected, collaborative research community.

This role is offered on a hybrid working basis, with an expectation of you spending 40% of your time in the office.

Find out more about working at the House of Commons.

Person specification

• You have excellent knowledge and understanding of employment policy and law, including key employment rights, the functioning of the employment tribunal and other labour market enforcement systems and the wider industrial relations landscape in the UK. You have a good knowledge of current affairs and UK public policy.
• You are able to absorb complex, technical material, relevant to a subject quickly, and can analyse, interpret and present it clearly and accurately for a non-specialist.
• You have the ability to explain complex information clearly and succinctly using your excellent written and oral communication skills.
• You can deal with a changing portfolio of work or cover for colleagues. You plan, prioritise and organise your workload to meet deadlines, and other competing demands. You can maintain high quality standards whilst working under pressure.
• You work effectively as part of a team and build and maintain working relationships with a wide range of people whilst upholding our principles of equality, diversity, inclusion at all times.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £57,865, House of Commons contributes £16,763 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

In addition to your salary, we offer an attractive range of benefits including but not limited to:

• Generous annual leave starting at 30 days and increasing to 35 after one full working year.

• Enrolment in the excellent Civil Service pension scheme with an average employer contribution of 27%

• Flexible working options that help you find a balance including enhanced maternity, paternity, shared parental and adoption leave, caring leave and alternative working patterns.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

• Application Form - If you would like to apply for this role, please submit an application providing evidence against Criteria 1 (Knowledge and Experience) in the job description.

This will be a two-stage application process:

We will ask you to complete a single criterion first. This will be Criteria 1 ‘Knowledge and Experience’. Candidates who are shortlisted based on this criterion will then be invited to complete the other criteria. We will assess your application form and, if you are successful, we will invite you to complete a written test and attend an interview.

More information on the application process can be found here: Application process - UK Parliament and in the application support pack attached. If you are invited to interview, you will be provided the interview questions in advance.

Please note that most job offers will be made at the minimum of the salary range, other than in exceptional circumstances.

Information Sessions

As part of the process, we will be running virtual information sessions on MS Teams for you to find out more about this role.

These sessions will be on:

• Tuesday 24th March at 12:00 – 13:00
• Wednesday 1st April at 12:30 – 13:30

To register to attend, please book your slot via Eventbrite here. If you are an internal staff member, please email Georgia Pearse (Recruitment Advisor) to receive the Teams invite.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Recruitment Team
• Email : recruitment@parliament.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment@parliament.uk