Employment Contracts Attorneys Bristol

A contract of employment is a legal agreement which comes into being when an employee agrees to work for an employer in return for pay.

The terms of a contract are the rights and obligations which bind the parties to the agreement and come in two forms - express and implied.

Express terms are those which are expressed orally or actually written into the contract. Employers are legally obliged to put certain express terms in writing in the form of a 'written statement of particulars.' These include details such as job title, rate of pay, holiday entitlement and pension schemes.

Implied terms refers to those that are too obvious to mention or those which both parties would assume to be incorporated into the contract. This includes statutory rights such as equal pay, minimum wage, sick pay and freedom from discrimination on the grounds of sex, race or disability.

Some terms may be implied through accepted custom and practice in a particular profession or with a particular employer. There is also an implied mutual trust and confidence on behalf of the employer and employee.

If an employer or employee breaks either the express or implied terms of a contract of employment or any other contract connected with employment then a breach of contract occurs.

Breach of contract claims by employees

Such claims are normally made in a civil court although a claim can be made to an employment tribunal if the following occurs:

Employment tribunal claims must be made within three months of the date the job ended. Civil court claims can be made up to six years from the date on which the alleged breach of contract occurred.

The amount a tribunal can award for breach of contract is subject to an upper limit which at the time of writing (June 2003) is £25,000 but civil court awards can reflect the full amount of damages suffered by the dismissed employee.

Breach of contract claims by employers

Such claims are also usually made in a civil court. An employer can only make a claim in an employment tribunal if:

Employment tribunal claims by an employer must normally be made within six weeks of the date on which the employer receives from the tribunal a copy of the dismissed employee's originating application. Claims to civil courts may be made within six years from the date the alleged breach of contract occurred.

The amount a tribunal can award for breach of contract is subject to an upper limit which at the time of writing (June 2003) is...

It is wrong to assume there is any great difference between full and part-time, temporary or permanent contracts. They are essentially all variations on the same contract.

The Part-Time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000, which came into force in July 2000, requires employers to offer benefits, such as pay and holiday, to part-time workers on a pro-rata basis. Unfair dismissal opt-outs in fixed-term contracts were abolished in October 1999, and the minimum service requirement for unfair dismissal claims was reduced from two years to one in mid-1999. Employers should be careful not to treat part-time or temporary employees as casual staff with few or no rights.

Written particulars

The statement should include:

• names of the employer and employee
• the employee's start date
• the date on which continuous employment began
• job title and a brief job description
• the place(s) of work and employer's address
• the scale or rate of remuneration and intervals at which it is paid
• hours of work
• holiday entitlement
• sickness entitlement
• pension and whether a contracting out certificate is in force
• length of notice which the employee must give or is entitled to receive
• where employment is not permanent, the period it is expected to last or the date on which it is to end
• any collective agreements which directly affect terms and conditions of employment
• for an employee required to work outside the UK, the period for which this is expected to last, the currency in which remuneration will be paid, details of additional remuneration or benefits and any terms and conditions relating to their return to the UK
• any applicable disciplinary rules and the employee's rights to appeal against a disciplinary ruling
• details of a person with whom grievances can be raised

Employed or self-employed?

However, simply putting a 'self-employed' label on a worker is not enough. Increasingly Employment Tribunals look at the facts of a particular case to distinguish between a genuinely self-employed individual and an employee. Take into consideration the following when deciding which type of worker your employees fit into:

• Control: to what extent does the individual work under the control of the employer?
• Integration: to what extent is the individual integrated into the employer's business?
• Loyalty: does the individual work solely for tha...