Employment Contract – Written Statement of Employment

An employment contract exists as soon as an employee starts working for you.
An employment contract is enforceable by law.
It can be a verbal agreement and doesn’t have to be written down.
If the contract is a verbal one, the employee is entitled to a written statement setting out the main elements of the job
An employee is entitled the written statement within two months of their start date.

What is included in a written statement

The legal company name of the employer.
The legal name of the employee.
The date the current employment began.
The employee’s pay, or how it is calculated, and whether it is paid weekly or monthly.
The employee’s hours of work.
The employee’s holiday entitlement and holiday pay.
Job title or a brief description of the w ork.
The address of the employee’s place of work.
Terms and conditions relating to sickness, injury and sick pay.
The period of employment – permanent, temporary, fixed term.
Notice periods.
Collective agreements with trade unions.
The employee’s pension entitlement
Dismissal, disciplinary and grievance procedures.

If any of the above information is available to staff in the staff handbook, the written statement can request that an employee refers to the details stated in the staff handbook – so the information does not have to be repeated in the statement.

Business Link – which is a service funded by the Government – has an online tool to help you create a written statement.
Once created, you can download the completed statement and print it out for your employee.