New legislation introduced stipulating what needs to be included in a contract of employment.

What has changed?

From 6 April 2020, the requirement to provide a written statement of terms and conditions extends to workers, not just employees. This now includes casual and zero hours workers.  Employers must provide their workers and employees with their written statement on or before their first day of employment, no matter how long they’re employed for.

There is additional information that written statements will need to contain, including:

• the hours and days of the week the worker /employee is required to work, whether they may be varied and how
• entitlements to any paid leave
• any other benefits not covered elsewhere in the written statement
• details of any probationary period

The following information can be provided in a single supplementary statement within two months of work commencing.

• Terms as to pensions and pension schemes.
• Details of any training provided by the employer.
• A note providing further information about disciplinary and grievance procedures.
• Details of any collective agreements.

What you need to do

HR professionals should ensure that workers starting on or after 6 April 2020 are provided with compliant written statements on or before their first working day.  You may need to change your on-boarding processes if you ordinarily issue contracts after an individual has started work.

To ensure that this process captures all individuals in scope, HR departments will need to distinguish between roles which require workers rather than genuinely self-employed contractors or employees. Standard contracts / employment particulars will need to be checked and, if necessary, amended to make incorporate all of the additional required information.

The new rules require you to provide details of all benefits in one statement. This may prove challenging if some are currently detailed outside of your contractual documentation – for example, on intranet pages.  The details of any non-contractual benefits need to be carefully drafted to avoid any suggestion that the benefits are contractual.

How Briars can help

Depending on the documents and practices that you already have in place, complying with these new rules may not straightforward for every business.  Our HR support team can help you to review these to ensure that your written statements of employment and onboarding processes are fully compliant.

Your team at Briars are here to help with any questions that you may have concerning these new rules; please do not hesitate to contact us here at info@briarsgroup.com.