Contract of Employment Recruitment and Employment

 

 

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Creating an agreed working relationship between you and your employee
   
As soon as you take on an employee to work for you, you should draw up a contract of employment which sets out the relationship between you and your employee.  The contract should be based on issues and tasks you felt should be legally binding between you and your employee, and can both agree upon; an example might be the paid holidays the employee is entitled to. 

It is always best to draw up a contract of employment rather than to do this verbally, as this will prevent any disputes arising from what was said or not said when the employee was taken on.  Also, written contracts should be worded clearly to avoid ambiguity or misinterpretation.  The document should be signed and dated by both parties; this contract should be given to the employee, but a copy kept on file for your own reference.

The content
What you include in your contract of employment will depend on what job you are offering and under what terms, but you must also include "written particulars" as part of your contract to comply with The Employment Rights Act 1996.

You should also be very careful when outlining an employees job description if you would like your employee to show flexibility in their job role.  If you are too rigid with the tasks outlined you will prevent flexibility. To prevent disputes as a result of wording or being too vague it is best to draw a balance between being too rigid and formal and too flexible and informal as tipping the balance either way could cause a dispute. The rule is to think carefully before you define a job description.

Written particulars

Written particulars have to be included to break down or explain in detail about the terms and conditions of employment, and by law you are required to provide these details to your employee. You may decide to provide a brief outline of your terms and conditions of employment within one document, and then provide a secondary document which outlines the contract in more details; however, your employees have the write to written particulars no later than two month's after beginning employment with you.

 

 

The Employment Right Act 1996

It is important that you are familiar with the particulars which you are required to be included within any contract of employment, and therefore it advised that you obtain and study the Employment rights Act 1996

The following are particulars which must be provided to your employee:

  • The parties of the contract i.e. your company's name and address and your employees name and address
  • The date the contract began 
  • The scale or rate of pay or the method of calculating pay
  • How intervals the employee will get paid weekly, monthly or any other specific interval
  • Terms and conditions relating to the hours of work - normal hours, overtime, expected out of hours work
  • The job title 
  • A brief description of what the employee is expect to do
  • Where the employee will be working giving the address(es) or locations
  • Terms relating to injury and sickness and sick-pay
  • Provisions for sick pay
  • Pension schemes or pension policy
  • Terms and conditions to holiday entitlement
  • A brief disciplinary summary (a code of conduct and disciplinary manual should be provided on request)
  • If the job is part-time, temporary or contractual
  • If contractual contract you need to state when the contract ends
  • The length of notice to terminate their contract
  • Any collective agreements  which might affect the terms and conditions
  • If the employee is required to work outside the UK you must include the period he or she is to work outside the UK, the currency in which you will pay the employee, any benefits which you may have provided for your employee to work outside the UK and any terms and conditions relating to the employees return to the UK

 

  
 
   
 

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Last updated: January 07, 2002.