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Contract of Employment
1. Introduction
This document is the contract of employment between you: [insert the employee’s name and address] AND your employer: [insert name and address of employer here]
2. Start date
Your employment began [will begin] on [insert date] [for a trial period of ? months] and [if you successfully complete the trial period] will continue until [insert end date of fixed term] [it is brought to an end by you or by us][or you reach retirement age].
3. Continuity of employment
No other previous employment counts as part of the same period of continuous employment for any legal purposes (such as calculating redundancy pay).
[alternative]
[Your previous employment with [insert name of previous continuous employer] from [insert start date] counts towards your period of continuous employment for legal purposes (such as calculating redundancy pay).
4. Retirement Age
You will retire on your 65th birthday or the last working day before that birthday unless we have reached agreement at that time for you to continue to work or we have agreed an earlier retirement. This contract will automatically end on the day you retire without further notice by either you or us
5. If you want to leave before you retire:
You must give us at least a [week’s] [month’s] notice.
6. If we want you to leave:
Unless you are guilty of gross misconduct we will normally give you notice of at least 1 week (up to 2 years employment). When you have worked for us for more than 2 years we will give you 1 week’s notice for each completed year of employment (up to 12 weeks maximum notice period). [However we do not have to give you any notice during your first month of employment.]
We have the right to end your contract immediately and pay you money in lieu of notice either when you have given us notice or when we give notice to you.
7. Your Job
You [will] work as [insert job title] at [insert address of principal place of work]. [We may move our business to another place or send you to work somewhere else if we need to]. Your job involves [insert brief description of duties].
You will travel to such places (whether within or outside the UK) as your job requires you to do.
We will continually assess your job performance and have the right to change your job or give you different things to do if we think it is necessary. We expect you to undergo training sometimes and this may have to be at a weekend or outside your normal working hours.
8. Overseas work
[You will [not] be required to work outside the United Kingdom [for any period of more than one month].
[If the employee is required to work outside the UK for more than a month include details of : a) the period b) the currency s/he will be paid in c) any additional pay or benefits provided by reason of working outside the UK d) any terms relating to the employee’s return to UK at the end of the period/contract]
9. Working Hours
Your normal working hours will be from [insert start time] to [insert finish time] on Monday to Friday. [You will work a shift pattern of [set out shifts].] You will [not] [normally] be required to work on Saturday or Sunday. We may require you to work different hours or shifts but we will always give you reasonable notice of any changes in your working hours or shifts.
10. Breaks
During your working day you may take a break [insert times of breaks including lunch] [at times agreed with your manager.]
11. The 48 hour week
You agree that the limit on working time specified in regulation 4.1 of The Working Time Regulations 1998 will not apply to your employment and that signature of this contract is consent under regulation 5.1 of the regulations for the duration of your employment subject to your right to terminate your consent by giving us three month’s notice in writing and the limit shall apply to your employment on the first working day immediately following the end of that period of notice.
12. Your pay
You will be paid at the end of each week/fortnight/every four weeks/ month [delete as applicable] at the rate of £ [insert wages rate].
We can reduce your pay if your duties change because you are incapable of working or suspend payment if you are suspended from duty [and/or if you are laid off because there is no work for you]. [optional]
Every year we will review how much we pay you but we do not have to increase your pay every year.
[Overtime pay will be paid for hours in excess of your normal hours at the rate of £ [insert overtime rate].]
13. Annual bonuses
You do not have a right to receive any bonus. [We will decide whether to pay you a bonus or not depending how well our business has done in the last year and your contribution to our success.]
14. Deductions from Pay
You agree that we may deduct from your wages any money we believe that you owe us. This could include the cost of damage you have done to our property, paid holidays taken in excess of your entitlement, other overpayments of wages or expenses, cash shortages or anything else where we believe that you owe us money whether under this contract or otherwise.
15. Pension
You are [will be] eligible [after 3 months employment] to join our stakeholder
pension scheme, details are available from: [insert how details can be obtained]]
[alternative for exempt employers] [Your employer does not currently operate a Pension Scheme applicable to your employment.]
There is [is not] currently in force a contracting out certificate in relation to your employment.
16. Holidays
Our holiday year runs from 1 January to 31 December. [change dates as required] You can take 4 weeks paid holidays every year. You must arrange your holidays with your manager at least 4 weeks before you want to go. We cannot promise that you can always go on holiday when you want to because it may not be convenient to us.
If you do not take all your holiday in a year we may let you take the days you have not taken during the next year but you must get permission to do this before the holiday year end otherwise you will lose them. [You may not carry forward any entitlement you do not take in a holiday year.] [You may carry forward up to 5 days entitlement to the next holiday year if you wish.]
During the holiday year in which you start or finish working for us, your holiday entitlement will be in proportion to the unexpired or elapsed part of the year. For example if there is 9 months of the holiday year left when you join us you can take 3 weeks during that time; if you leave us six months in to the holiday year your entitlement for that year is 2 weeks. If you have taken more holidays than you are then entitled to when you leave we will reduce your final pay by the number of excess holiday days.
During your first holiday year of employment you may take leave only as it accrues at a pro rata rate. For example if your entitlement is 20 days a year it accrues in the first holiday year at the rate of 1.66 days every month. Leave may only be taken as a day or half-day. The limitation of taking only accrued holiday does not apply after your first holiday year when you may take your holiday entitlement at such times as are agreed with your employer.
As well as your holidays you will normally not be required to work on the UK Bank or Public holidays and you will be paid for them when you would have otherwise been required to work on that day.
17. What happens when you are sick
If you cannot work because you are sick you must let us know as soon as possible, and we may be able to pay you [sick pay] or SSP. There is an explanation of [the sick pay scheme] [SSP] in the Staff Handbook. [Payments under our sick pay scheme are discretionary and you have no right to be paid sick pay.]
18. Other time off work
You may need time off work for other reasons apart from taking holidays or illness. Our policy about this is contained in the Staff Handbook but please remember that unless it is an emergency all time off work can only be taken with our permission.
19. Our expectations of you
You must obey this contract, our lawful instructions and orders and follow the rules and procedures that you will find in the staff handbook and also in manuals and memos that we issue from time to time.
You must devote your whole time and attention to our best interests during your working hours. [optional] [You must not work for any another employer or carry out work on any other basis, in or out of your working hours, unless we give you our written permission.]
Whilst you work for us you must not do or seek any work directly from or for anybody who is a customer of ours on your own or anyone else’s behalf.
You must not smoke cigarettes or tobacco at work. The consumption of alcoholic drinks during working hours is strictly forbidden as is the taking of drugs other than those prescribed or taken for a medical condition.
We have a right to suspend you from work temporarily, paid or unpaid, in circumstances where we consider it to be necessary.
It is a condition of this contract that you have told the truth about your criminal record (although this does not mean that you have to tell us about offences that are “spent” under the Rehabilitation Of Offenders Act 1974). You have a duty to tell us if at any time you are arrested, charged with, summonsed for, or convicted of a criminal offence of any nature and truthfully and fully answer any questions we have.
You have obligations under our Health and Safety at Work policy that is set out in the Staff Handbook. Please read it and ensure that you are fully aware of its contents.
20. Dress at work
[You will be provided with a uniform that must be worn at work. You must keep it clean and tidy.]
You are expected to dress in accordance with any dress code that we issue applicable to your job.
You will be provided with protective clothing and equipment which must be worn/used at work as instructed and subject to a reasonable standard of care at all times.
21. Confidential information
You must not for any reason disclose to any person or use for any purpose whatsoever or copy any confidential information relating to our business affairs or trade secrets. For example this includes information about our customers or clients, other employees, suppliers and prices or any other matter or information on the database or about our business or the business of our customers or clients which is not already freely available to the public.
22. Computers
You are not allowed to load your own software on to computers at work and must not copy software or data from our computers, use e-mail or internet access, or make any other use of computers or software for any purpose other than our legitimate business interests.
23. E-mail and the internet
You must not open files downloaded from the internet or email on our computers without virus checking the files. The computers, networks and the email system are our property and all copies of messages created, sent, receive or stored on our systems shall remain our property.
We reserve the right to access and monitor all messages created, sent, received or stored on our systems. We may disclose the contents of email messages to other employees and to third parties at our discretion without any further permission. These messages are not your private property and as such there should be no expectation of privacy in any circumstances. Emails, text messages and the internet should not be used to create, send receive or store any material which is offensive, disruptive or infringes copyright. A detailed policy on email and internet use, is contained in the staff handbook and incorporated in this contract.
24. Vehicles
[Vehicles are provided for business use and the use of a vehicle may be withdrawn at any time and without notice. Reasonable private use of vehicles is permitted [if you are allowed to keep a vehicle out of working hours], but we will only pay for fuel used during business use, subject to receipts being produced when required.] [You do not have any right to be provided with a vehicle for private use under this contract.]
If your job involves driving a vehicle you must hold a current full UK licence to drive that type of vehicle and you must tell us if you are summonsed for or convicted of a driving related offence.
You are responsible for taking all reasonable steps to ensure that any of our vehicles driven by you are kept in good condition checked and maintained as required and at the correct intervals and loaded and driven safely at all times. You must report any accident involving a vehicle during the course of your job to us and our insurers without any delay and obtain all relevant and lawfully required particulars from any other party to an accident.
We may deduct from your wages [salary] the amount of any insurance excess, fines or penalties for parking or traffic offences incurred when you are using our vehicle, or other reasonable costs should a vehicle provided by us be involved in a road traffic accident or damaged in any other way while being driven by you or in your care.
You will not permit any other person to drive our vehicle other than as we specifically authorise in writing.
25. Discipline
If your behaviour does not meet our standards we will take disciplinary action. Our disciplinary procedure is set out in the staff handbook although it is not part of this contract. It complies with the statutory procedure. If you are unhappy about any disciplinary decision there is a right of appeal or you can raise a grievance.
26. What to do if you are unhappy about something at work
Our grievance procedure is contained in the staff handbook although it is not part of this contract. It complies with the statutory procedure. It tells you how to deal with any worries or problems or what to do if you feel you have to complain about something. The person you should raise a grievance with is [state the individual or level of management to whom a formal grievance should be addressed].
27. When you leave our employment
We may either require you to work throughout your notice period, or require you to stay away from work on garden leave during your notice period. You have no right to be provided with work during a period of garden leave but you will have to remain at home able to do any work we require you to do.
You must return all property belonging to or relating to our business or our clients or customers in your possession or control when requested to do so and in any event immediately at the end of your employment. For example this will include vehicles, tools, phones, documents, correspondence, equipment, computer discs and software, specifications, reports, records, credit cards, keys, passes, lists of clients and customers, address lists, address books, files, books, and, data of any kind including copies of these things.
28. Collective agreements
There are no collective agreements that affect the terms and conditions of your employment. [alternative] Your employment is subject to the terms of [specify the details of the collective agreement].
29. Data protection
We are regulated by the Data Protection Act 1998 to the extent that we obtain, record or use any information about you. By obtaining, recording and using information about you, we will be ‘data processing’ in relation to such information. Under this contract, you consent to us processing any data that we obtain about you as a result of your being our employee, including “sensitive personal data” about you and also to data being transferred outside the European Economic Area where in our sole opinion such a transfer is necessary.
We are obliged to provide you with certain information under the Data Protection Act:
Data Controller: [insert employer’s name]
Address: [insert address]
Data Controller’s Representative: [insert name]
Address: [insert address]
Purpose of data processing: to keep adequate records of your recruitment, contract, performance, disciplinary record, sickness record, pension details, wages, salary and other benefits, appraisals and all other information arising in the performance of your contract of employment for the purpose of the performance of the contract and the administration and management of your contract and the administration and management of our business or organisation and any other purpose arising from the relationship of employer and employee created by this contract.
Other Relevant Information:
Description of Data: all records of your recruitment, contract, performance, disciplinary record, sickness record, pension details, wages, salary and other benefits, appraisals and all other information arising in the performance of your contract of employment.
Intended Recipients of Data: Us and all others authorised by you and /or your employer to receive data and all others to whom we are legally obliged to disclose the same at any time or to whom we deem it necessary or desirable to disclose data for the purposes set out above.
Countries outside the European economic Area to which data will or may be transmitted: we are not currently aware of any.
30. Non enforcement does not waive our rights to enforce this contract
Should we fail to enforce or apply any of the rights that we have under this contract it will not mean that we approve of or have agreed to a breach of contract or will therefore lose our rights to enforce the terms of this contract in full at any time now or in the future.
31. Whole agreement
This contract and the Sickness and Absence Rules, and the E-mail and Internet Policy incorporated in it from the staff handbook are the whole agreement between you and us and supersedes all previous contracts, agreements, arrangements or understandings whether oral or written. No amendment to this contract will be legally binding unless made in writing and signed by us.
32. The English Courts
This contract is made within the jurisdiction of the Courts and Employment Tribunals of England and Wales and shall be governed by the law of England and Wales.
33. Interpretation
The use of the words “us” “we” “our” “ours” “your employer” and/or “employer” in this contract and in the staff handbook (including those parts of the staff handbook which are not specifically incorporated in this contract) shall mean [insert name of employer] and/or any associated company, holding company or subsidiary (as defined in The Companies Act 1985 or any amending Act) and any person, corporate body or partnership to which this contract may be transferred at any time whether by agreement or operation of law or otherwise.
The use of the words “you” “your” “yours” are references to [insert name of employee] who is the employee whose contract of employment this contract is.
The use of the expression “this contract” means the contract of employment between [insert name of employer] and [insert name of employee] the terms of which are set out in this document.
The use of the expression “staff handbook” shall mean the document entitled “Staff Handbook” issued by [insert name of employer] from time to time.
The use of the expression “our vehicle” or “owned by us” shall include a vehicle hired by or leased or loaned to [insert name of employer].
The use of the expressions “job” “your job” and “job performance” mean and refer to the duties for which you are employed at any time under this contract.
The headings to clauses used in this contract including appropriate sections of the Staff Handbook are for convenience only and shall not affect the interpretation of this contract.
34. Written Statement of Terms and Conditions
This contract is also the written particulars of terms and conditions that we are obliged to issue under Section 1 Employment Rights Act 1996.
To signify your agreement to employment with your employer on the terms contained in it please sign both copies of this contract keeping one copy for yourself and returning the other to your employer.
I [insert name of employee] have read and understood this contract and hereby agree to employment with [ insert name of employer] on the terms and conditions set out above.
Signed............................................................. Date:...................................
(Employee)
Signed.............................................................. Date:...................................
(Employer)
THIS IS A LEGALLY BINDING DOCUMENT.