Drafting that Contract

All employees taken on for one month or more are legally entitled to receive within two months a written statement setting out the main particulars. This statement will not necessarily cover every aspect of the contract, but will constitute important evidence of the principal terms and conditions. Unfortunately, many employees have no written contracts of employment and the range of problems this can cause is growing as fast as new employment legislation is introduced.

To get started, you do the following:

1. List out the important terms of the new employment. Pay, holiday and notice periods are obviously crucial
   
   
2. Consider all the issues that have been the subject of misunderstandings and disagreements in the past.
   
   
3. Obtain an example contract that includes all the other relevant terms that you may not have yet considered.
   
   
4. Ensure all the terms that now contained comply with all recent employment legislation

When a full contract has not been produced, an implied or oral contract will immediately come into existence. Implied terms might include those that are too obvious to be expressly agreed, those that are necessary to make the contract workable and those that are established by custom and practice in the particular organisation or industry concerned. There is obviously a huge potential for disagreement.

Unfortunately for employers, Industrial Tribunals have a reputation for extremely fickle judgements. In addition, the time required to attend and fight a claim at an industrial tribunal is considerable and many employers prefer to settle claims early rather than fight them.