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You are obliged to provide each of your employees with a written statement or an employment contract setting out certain terms and conditions that govern your employment relationship, so that they are aware of the main terms of their employment. Such a written statement is commonly called an ‘employment statement’. You are not required to provide such details to employees whose employment does not last for at least one month.
All of your employees must receive an employment statement within two months of their employment commencing.
An employment statement must contain all of the essential elements of a contract including the following information:
1. The names of the employer and employee
2. The date on which the employment began including any period of continuous employment with a previous employer
3. Details of the scale/rate of remuneration and intervals of pay
4. Terms and conditions relating to hours of work including normal hours of work and contractual overtime
5. Details of holiday entitlement, including public holidays and holiday pay (and sufficient information to allow precise calculation of entitlement)
6. Terms and conditions relating to incapacity for work due to sickness or injury, including provisions relating to sick pay
7. Rules relating to pension schemes and whether a contracting-out certificate under the Pension Scheme Act 1993 is in force
8. The employee’s job title and/or a brief description of the work that he or she will be doing
9. Place of work or an indication that the employee may work at various places and if that is the case provide a list of those places (where known) including the employer’s address
10. The length of notice required by each party
11. Where the employment is not intended to be permanent, the period for which it is expected to continue, or if a fixed-term contract, its expiry date
12. Any collective agreements which directly affect the terms and conditions of employment, including, where the employee is not a party, the persons by whom they were made
13. Certain details where the employee is required to work outside of the UK for more than one month
14. Disciplinary rules
15. Dismissal, disciplinary and grievance procedures
16. The name of the person to whom the employee can apply if he or she is dissatisfied with any disciplinary decision or wishes to raise any grievance relating to his or her employment
17. Any other term which in view of its importance is an essential part of the contract
The first nine items must be placed within a single statement, but the others may be contained in separate documents such as an employment handbook.
If there are any changes to the employment statement that you give to any one or more of your employees then you must give them a written statement setting out the details of the change within one month of the change taking effect.
If you fail to provide an employee with a written statement, provide an incomplete statement or fail to inform an employee of a change, and an employment tribunal finds that you have unfairly dismissed or discriminated against that employee then they may award up to four weeks’ pay to that employee in addition to any other sum to which that employee is entitled to receive in compensation.
