Employment contracts in UK law

UK employment law requires you to give a written employment contract to all of your employees within two months of them starting work for you. A contract protects the rights of both parties and sets out the terms of your agreement with each member of staff.

We do not recommend that you use standard employment contract templates, since circumstances and the position varies. The right employment contract for one company may well be unsuitable for a different company, and it is important to use one which is appropriate for your needs.

Types of employment contract

There are a number of types of employment contract: permanent or fixed term; full time or part time; flexible hours; term-time; casual hours and the high profile zero hours contracts. It is important to choose the right contract for each member of your staff—it may well be that you need several different types of employment contract.

What should be included in a contract of employment?

You can also choose to include a number of clauses and restrictive covenants in your contract(s) if you wish to. For example you might want to restrict some of your staff with strong sales relationships from moving to a competitor straight after leaving your company, or from poaching other members of your team. If you have sensitive information then you can look at enforcing non-disclosure by employees. However this is a complex area since some employers have tried to use non-disclosure clauses to inhibit whistle blowing.

How we help with employment contracts

We make it really easy for you to get the right employment contracts for your staff, but giving you a clear insight into wheat the law says.

  • We can advise on what type of employment contracts you need. We ensure that all our contracts are easy to read, while still covering many of the complicated areas which employers face.
  • We will also look at your proposed contracts you use to ensure they are fit for purpose, and capable of protecting both parties.
  • We can set up a standard contract template for your company, to save even more time.

If you already have employment contracts in place, we can review these to see if they are suitable and legally compliant. We will discuss our suggestions with you and help you implement them with your staff.

Keeping contracts of employment up to date

Our Lawrizon Services will keep you up to date on any legal changes on the horizon. This up to date knowledge will help you stay on the right side of the law and to make changes to your operations where required.

As part of our service we offer regular Legal Updates, letting you know about any changes to employment law you might need to know about.  And if any change in the law means that we should change our contracts, we will do that automatically and let you know.

We will also talk to you on every annually after you join us to see if your company’s needs have changed at all, and to make sure that you have the right contracts. Of course, if you ever think you might need something different, you are welcome to get in touch with us at any stage.