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Questions and Answers courtesy of Law Express
Advice from Law Express is part of the inclusive service that service users of Enable Payroll receive as standard.
With guidance from a team of fully trained solicitors, you can ensure that as an employer you are fully up to date and guided on employment law and legislation.
The law states that all employees must be given written particulars of their terms of employment within three months of starting their employment. This is not technically a contract and must include all relevant details such as name of employer, place of employment, salary and holidays. However these are very basic documents and in order to have more detailed contractual terms, the best practice is to agree the terms of a written contract to be signed prior to the start of employment. Enable Payroll has a suitable document, which can be amended where necessary.
To provide no documents at all could lead to action being taken by your employee resulting in compensation of up to 4 weeks wages being payable.
Yes, when making alterations to any typed contract it is possible to write these clearly on the document. You and the employee should then initial all such alterations. Once signed a copy of the contract should be given to the employee.
All terms written in the contract are known as express terms. These should be clear and unambiguous and are there for reference and enforcement where necessary.
Implied terms are not included within the written terms and are occasionally inserted by courts and tribunals to cover circumstances, which may not have been foreseen. Implied terms can therefore be inserted during such proceedings where a court or tribunal believes it would have been inserted if the parties had envisaged certain events occurring.
There are also implied terms which are accepted as included in all employment contracts. One of the most frequently referred to is the implied term of trust and confidence. This means that an employer should not treat an employee in an arbitrary or vindictive manner.
The breach of an implied or an express term could lead to a potential claim before an employment tribunal, which could result in a financial penalty being awarded against you.
The notice period required to be given by the employee is generally an express term of the employment contract. Failure to give the appropriate notice is therefore a breach of that contractual term. However, there is generally little that you can do to remedy the situation, as any such legal claim must be based on loss. There will be no loss in these circumstances as failure to turn up for work will mean that no salary is payable.
It is worth noting that the standard Enable Payroll contract contains a clause covering these circumstances allowing a possible deduction from outstanding salary.
There is no easy answer to this question and no right or wrong. If you both employ the employee simultaneously it is more usual to have one contract in the names of all parties. If the employee share arises at different times then it may be appropriate for each set of employers to have their own individual contracts with the employee.
In each case it would be advisable to liaise with Enable Payroll to ensure that the tax and national insurance contributions are collected proportionately between all parties.
Even though your personal assistant / carer may not have signed the contract you may still be bound by the terms and conditions contained within it. Where the terms of employment have been set out in writing, your nanny has received a copy of them, worked the agreed hours and been paid by you then the terms of the unsigned contract are implied. This means they should be enforceable by both parties.
It is, however, advisable to ensure that both you, as the employer, and your employee both sign the contract and that each party keeps a copy for future reference. This will then reduce the potential for uncertainty.
