Employment Contract

This document provides for a simple employment agreement between an employer and employee, where employment is not on either a zero hours, or fixed term basis. It can be adjusted to account for a wide range of circumstances, and satisfies the employers' duty to provide a written statement of particulars.

The document will provide the employee 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, to ensure that both employer and employee know their respective positions from the outset.

Please note that following the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR") employers may have to take further steps to comply with data protection law when processing information about employees. This document has been adapted to reflect the GDPR and contains provisions which can be tailored by the employer to reflect their data protection policies. In order to advise their employees of their data protection rights, employers may also wish to provide them with a separate data protection policy (not included herein).

Indeed, if employee's personal information is processed, employers should consider the lawful bases for their processing of personal information. The lawful bases for processing are set out in Article 6 of the GDPR. At least one of these must apply whenever an entity processes personal data:

(a) Consent: the individual has given clear consent to process their personal data for a specific purpose.

(b) Contract: the processing is necessary for a contract with the individual, or because they have asked the relevant entity to take specific steps before entering into a contract.

(c) Legal obligation: the processing is necessary for an entity to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations).

(d) Vital interests: the processing is necessary to protect someone's life.

(e) Public task: the processing is necessary for the relevant entity to perform a task in the public interest or for their official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law.

(f) Legitimate interests: the processing is necessary for an entity's legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party unless there is a good reason to protect the individual's personal data which overrides those legitimate interests. (This cannot apply if the entity is a public authority processing data to perform their official tasks.)

Further information can be found on the ICO website's page on the lawful basis for processing.

 

How the document is to be used

The contract should be provided to the employee to be signed and returned. When the document is signed and returned, or shortly thereafter, the employee should also be provided with any employer documents regarding overtime, disciplinary, grievance and/or sickness policies, and any documents relating to other benefits such as insurance or pension documents.

 

Any Applicable Law

Both parties should consider and be aware of issues including, but not limited to, holiday and notice entitlement, continuous periods of employment, the national minimum wage, the working time directive, Sunday working rules, statutory sick pay, automatic pensions enrolment, the requirement to provide written statement of particulars, dismissal and discrimination law, and maternity or paternity provisions, although not all of these issues are required to be addressed or considered within the employment 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 Sunday Trading Act 1994 and the National Minimum Wage Act 1998.

General Data Protection Regulation

In addition employers should be aware of the ACAS code 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.