Contracts of employment

It is unlawful not to issue a statement of terms and conditions within two months of an employee starting work, in most cases, and this alone can give an employee grounds to complain to an Employment Tribunal and claim compensation.

A statutory statement of terms and conditions must provide certain information as required by Employment Rights Act.

We believe it is essential for employers to use properly-drafted contracts of employment when they employ staff and failure to use proper contracts will limit your power to control the employer-employee relationship or reduce the chances of disputes or protect your business from costly, time-consuming Employment Tribunal cases.

The term ‘standard contract’ can be highly misleading, and many examples of such documents we have seen have contained nothing more than the statutory minimum statement requirements.

A proper contract of employment can do much more than this. For example, without written contractual agreement an employer cannot lawfully deduct money from wages, or claim back the cost of training should an employee leave.

We can supply template documents that employers and HR professionals can edit and adapt to suit their own requirements, as part of the Lawrite Employment Law and Employment Law Plus services.

For Managed HR clients, we can assess you current documents if necessary, and then take your instructions before providing contracts of employment to suit your specific requirements.

In some cases we can carry out this service remotely to reduce costs.

We supply contracts of employment to suit a variety of purposes, including short contracts suitable for staff in “shop floor” or manual labour roles, a longer contract for “career” staff and a contract specifically worded for senior and managerial staff. We also supply a director’s service agreement, and can provide a specific contractor’s agreement for outside contractors and freelancers.