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EMPLOYEE CONTRACTS

Whenever you have a new member of staff, you will have to issue them with a contract of employment. According to ACAS, the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, this is the single most important piece of legal documentation in your business. It is a statutory obligation for an employee to have had written statement of employment particulars within two months of him/her starting work (which is where the letter making the job offer can come in). Both you as the employer and the employee are bound by these conditions, once they have been accepted.

The good news is that the written statement of employment particulars does not have to be a complicated document, and there is a great deal of free help and advice available to you (which is listed at the end of this section).

Basically, the written statement of employment particulars must cover the following:

The names of the employer and employee
The date when the employment began (and if it is not a permanent post, the date when the period of employment is expected to end)
Job title and brief job description
Place of work (with an indication if the employee is expected to work in other locations)
Rate of pay and intervals at which it is to be paid
Hours of work (maximum must be in accordance with the Working Time Regulations)
Holiday entitlement and holiday pay (minimum entitlement - Working Time Regulations – see link)
Entitlement to sick leave/sick pay and reporting procedure
Pension arrangements (providing a Stakeholder Pension scheme is now a legal requirement for companies with more than 5 employees – further details Link)
Ending the employment (after 1 month, the employee must be given 1 week’s notice for the first 2 years of employment, rising by an extra week a year up to a maximum of 12 weeks)
Disciplinary procedures (from 2003, all employers have had to have minimum disciplinary and grievance procedures in place – click here for further details)

You may also want to specify if there is a probationary period for your employee, and the review date and procedure before they become a full member of the team. This can be as short as a fortnight or as long as 6 months – whatever suits your business – but it doesn’t affect the employee’s basic employment rights, e.g. to sickness or holiday pay.

Once you have set these out and had them agreed, you cannot make changes to these terms and conditions without your employee’s agreement.

For more detailed help with written statements/contracts of employment, the following contacts are very useful:

www.acas.org.uk/

www.businesslink.gov.uk/

www.business-support-wales.gov.uk

If you would like to download this document please click on one of the links below:

Employee Contracts (Word Document 120Kb)
Employee Contracts (PDF Document Kb)



Managing Staff Regulations and Legal Staff Handbook



All new members of staff have to have written terms and conditions within two months of the starting work. The contract does not have to be a complicated document and can be included in a letter confirming a job offer.