Contracts of Employment - Terms & Conditions

Employees enter into a contract of employment as soon as they start work, whether that contract be verbal or written. Many people believe that contracts must be in writing and signed, but this is not necessarily true.

A contract can be entered into verbally, but this results in no official record of its terms and conditions being kept and therefore it can be difficult to prove any breach.

If you are looking to recruit an employee on a formal basis, you should consider having such a written contact of employment in place so that both you and your employee are fully aware of all agreements before entering into the contract.

The contract of employment may contain to following sections;

1. Details of the Employer and of the Employee
2. Commencement Date of the Employer
3. Position and an outline of duties
4. Place of work
5. Rate of Pay and Payment Arrangements
6. The Employee's Working Week
7. Amount of Holiday Due
8. Sick Pay Arrangements
9. Pension Schemes and Policies
10. Details relating to any overseas work
11. Grievance Policy
12. Period of Notice
13. Redundancy Policy
14. Disciplinary Policy
15. Declaration of the employee and an authorised representative of the employer

A contract of employment may consist of both terms and conditions of employment, there is a difference between these two types of clauses, and it is important that you can identify that difference.

Terms are agreed between the employer and employee, as opposed to conditions which are instructed by the employer and must be adhered to during the employment.

A term of employment could be; 'You are entitled to a free lunch in the staff restaurant each day that work', but if if this were in the form of a condition, it may read 'You must have your lunch in the staff restaurant each day that you work, and you should claim the free lunch provided".

Some terms of employment may relate to your general ways of working, rather than specific entitlements or requirements, for example;

'You will respect our property and cause no deliberate damage when working on our premises'

Terms of employment may be expressed, implied or statutory depending on what they imply.

Expressed terms are written or verbal parts of the employment of contract, and are physically agreed to by both the employer and employee.

Implied terms can be used as part of an argument in a court of law as this is where something is naturally obvious, for example, an employer actually paying due wages is a term of employment even if it is not actually stated in the contract, similarly, an employee is expected to follow lawful orders given by the employer.

Statutory terms are implemented as a result of legislation, for example, the employer shall not discriminate unlawfully.

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