The employment contract

Introduction

The moment an applicant unconditionally accepts your offer of a job, a contract of employment comes into existence. The terms of the contract can be oral, written, implied or a mixture of all three.

Even if you do not issue a written contract, you are under a legal duty to provide the employee with a written statement of main employment particulars within two months of the start of their employment with you. The written statement is not itself the contract but it can provide evidence of the terms and conditions of employment between you and the employee if there is a dispute later on.

This guide lays out your legal obligations when issuing a contract of employment or a written statement.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• What a contract of employment is
• How to change an existing contract
• Put together an employee's written statement
• Put together an employee's written statement in separate parts
• Implied terms of an employment contract
• When you send a new employee abroad