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Explanatory Notes
Fixed Short Term Employment Contract for less than a year
EXPLANATORY NOTES
GENERAL
A duplicate of the contract (signed by employer) should be sent to the prospective employee for their records and to allow them to sign and return one copy to you to be retained. This will act as proof that the employee has accepted the terms and conditions of the contract The contract can be issued to an employee after they have joined as long as it is not later than 12 weeks after the employment began. It is important that you review the contract to ensure that it is applicable to your business requirements. For example a clause prohibiting smoking is including but if you allow smoking in your offices you will need to amend the clause. Guidance is given below as to which clauses you may wish to amend or review. Page 1 contains a covering letter to send with the terms and conditions of employment. It contains instructions for the employee on what to do with the contract once they have read and understood its contents. It is important to ensure that all employees are treated equally and that no direct or indirect discrimination takes place by including clauses for some categories of staff and excluding them for others. GUIDANCE ON SPECIFIC CLAUSES 1.1 The employer needs to specify the beginning and end date of the contract. The contract can be terminated prior to the end date. 1.3 If there is unlikely to be a requirement to travel abroad, remove reference to the possibility from the contract 1.5 The length of a probationary period can be varied. During the probationary period the employee should receive objective feedback about their performance and the feedback should be documented. This should include the setting of specific targets for improvement if appropriate. The probationary period should not be extended for more than 6 months in total. During this time a final decision should be made about the employee's suitability for the role. 2 1 This clause needs to be tailored to the particular circumstances of the employer. Clause 2.1 allows the employer to require work outside normal office hours but employers in the EU should be aware of the statutory constraints in particular the Working Time Directive. (There is information on this in Contractstore's Info Centre http://www.infocs.prerelease.enstar.net/20/) 2.1 Reasonable notice of changes to hours should be no less than 1 month. 4 It would be usual to allow an employee on a contract for a year to have a holiday entitlement 4.2 The simplest way of calculating a pro rata holiday allowance for the month the employee joins is to use the 15th of the months as a cut off date. Those joining before the 15th get half a month's holiday allowance and those joining after the 15th a full month's allowance. 4.7 Employees are usually entitled to take public holidays in addition to their normal holiday entitlement on a paid basis. 5.1 It would be usual to allow employees paid sick leave on contracts of up to a year 5.2 It is suggested that a medical certificate be produced for absence in excess of 5 working days. 5.3 It is suggested that an employee be entitled to the first 10 days of any absence due to sickness or injury in any calendar year and thereafter for pay to be at the discretion of the employer. 6. It is not usual for employees on fixed term contracts to be eligible to join the pension scheme. It is important to ensure that the employer is not indirectly discriminating against one section of their workforce but not allowing them to join the pension scheme. For example, if all fixed term contractors were women, this could be considered indirect discrimination, as this group would be being treated less favourably. 7. There is no requirement to give notice to an employee if the contract is due to expire on the date stated in 1.1. 8. It is advisable to have a confidentiality clause, which not only requires the employee to maintain confidentiality while working for the employer but also after the contract comes to an end. In addition the clause requires an employee to return documents belonging to the company at the end of the contract. 11. Non solicitation. Clauses designed to restrict an employee's right to work for a competitor are recommended but there is a lot of case law on this subject and legal advice should be taken on precise wording of this clause.
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