Understanding

Understanding Your Contract

As an employee, you, friends and colleagues should all have a written contract.  It is important because it helps you understand your role, your responsibilities and general rules of behaviour so that you do not make mistakes through misunderstanding.

For the same reason it is important that if your job, or parts of your job change, with perhaps new responsibilities, that these are reflected in an up-dated contract.

This helps both you and your employer.

With so many legal changes on the way with some 2000 laws expiring and rewritten, we thought it useful just to stress some elements of contracts of employment.

Obviously the contract needs to be in writing to avoid any misunderstanding regarding: roles, hours, responsibilities and general workplace behaviour etc.

A further reason why a written contract is vital, is that in the event you are subject to a claim at an employment tribunal and do not have a written contract in place, a successful claimant may be awarded additional compensation of between two and four of claimant weeks pay capped at £571 per week.

An element which can slip through the net is when an employee’s  change of role occurs. It is vital that if their terms and conditions change they are reflected in an updated contract.

Our last reminder is that if a contract of an employment is changed without consent it can result in a claim of constructive dismissal.

The Graham Agency, keeping you informed.