Casual Worker Agreement

This document provides for a simple Casual Worker Agreement between a business and a worker for use in Great Britain. In contrast to a employment contract, this document creates an agreement with a casual worker where a business wishes to engage the services of an individual as a worker rather than an employee.

Workers are different to employees. For example:

• grievance and disciplinary processes involving employees must be undertaken in line with the ACAS code of practice, whereas this is not the case for workers;
• employees must be covered by employer's liability insurance, whereas this may not have to apply to workers in every instance;
• businesses are able to create an agreement with a worker where they are under no obligation to provide them with a minimum amount of hours (known as a 'zero hours contract');
• an agreement with a worker may specify that a worker has the right to reject offers of work, whereas an employee will always have fixed hours of work which they must undertake.

Whilst a worker is not afforded the same protections as a person who has the status of an employee, they are still entitled to certain rights and there are still certain factors which must be addressed within an agreement with a worker.

This document will provide the worker with all the information they need to understand their entitlement to pay, holiday and benefits, and clearly details other key issues such as hours and place of work, how offers of work will be communicated and if there is a time limit on how long the worker will have to accept the work.

The retained EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (UK GDPR), places obligations upon businesses to provide individuals with specific information regarding the use of their personal information. Workers should be provided with such information in a concise, transparent and easily accessible form, using plain language. A business engaging the services of workers should ensure that these obligations are met by issuing a privacy statement and by holding any other policy documents where appropriate.

Where a worker is aged over 18, it is possible for them to agree with the business that they will work more than 48 hours per week. Ordinarily, under the Working Time Regulations 1998, workers should not work over this amount of hours per work. Where such an agreement has been reached, this should be documented separately to the worker's contract. This best way to achieve this is to create a separate Working Time Regulations Agreement. It should be noted it is not possible for workers under the age of 18 to agree to work more than the limit of 40 hours per week.

How to use this document

Two copies of the document should be provided to the worker and the business to read and understand. When both parties are happy with the contents of the agreement, they should sign both copies, returning one copy to the other party and keeping the other copy for their own records. When the document is signed and returned, or shortly thereafter, the worker should also be provided with any documents regarding overtime, disciplinary, grievance and/or sickness policies, and any documents relating to other benefits.

Relevant law

Both parties should consider and be aware of issues including, but not limited to, holiday entitlement, the national minimum wage, the working time directive, statutory sick pay, automatic pensions enrolment, dismissal and discrimination law, although not all of these issues are required to be addressed or considered within the contract.

Key legal provisions include:

• The Employment Rights Act 1996 (as amended)
• The Working Time Regulations 1998
• The Pensions Act 2008
• The Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003
• The National Minimum Wage Act 1998.
• The Data Protection Act 2018
• The retained EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (UK GDPR).
• In addition employers should be aware of the ACAS codes of practice.

Help from a lawyer

You can choose to consult a lawyer if you need help.

The lawyer can answer your questions or help you through the process. You will be offered this option when you complete the document.

How to modify the template

You fill out a form. The document is created before your eyes as you respond to the questions.

At the end, you receive it in Word and PDF formats. You can modify it and reuse it.