Contract of employment is considered as an agreement between the employee and employer that governs the relationship of both parties. It is the one that sets the employment responsibilities, rights and duties. In every industry, there is definitely a need of a contract for legal purposes.
This contract of employment should be made as soon as an individual accept the job being offered. Once you start working it would then show that you have accepted the job based on the terms being offered by the employer though you have no idea what are those terms.
There is a need to have a written contract for the purpose of cutting out disputes to your employer in the near future and so will help in understanding the employment rights.
Sources of Contract Terms
Contract terms could come from numbers of various sources. It could be the following:
- in a written contract or the same document
- verbally agreed
- in an employee handbook or in a company notice board
- in a certain offer letter from the employer
- in a collective agreement
- being required by law such as the requirement by the employer to pay you even the minimum wage
- through implied terms
Contract of employment is providing the employer and employee with the obligations and rights. There might be a lack of clarity with regards to the rights, obligations and duties once there is a failure in providing written contract.
But once the contract of employment is provided there could be a chance of minimising ambiguity and disputes regarding the employment relationship. Also, due to the fact that every business has various outlooks and needs, there might also be a difference with regards to the content and style of the contract of employment.
What does Contract of Employment Cover?
The content of a certain contract would depend into the nature of the business as well as the job being offered though there are certain standard conditions and terms. UK laws are providing minimum obligations and rights such as the right to a safe work system and also minimum notice periods.
It also includes the duty to obey lawful and reasonable orders as well as the need of not revealing the trade secrets and a lot more. These obligations and rights are considered to be employed into the contract of employment in general.
But there are other additional protections that a contract could provide considered being very valuable in a certain business and those are the following:
- Ability of placing a departing employee into the garden leave during a certain notice period
- Ability of making payment in lieu of notice compared with requiring an individual to work out the notice
Intellectual property and confidential information could also be protected. There might also be numbers of needs by legitimate businesses that requires protection through the way of restrictive covenants like trade secrets, customer connections and also confidential information.
The employer and the employee are bound, as been written in employee handbook 2016, into the employment up until the employment of contract ends or up until the terms are being changed.
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