no contract

rjh090384

hi

i have been working for my new employer since mid-july.and have not yet received a contract.

i have taken this up with my manager on several occasions the last being end november i think and we were promised them early january. is it just me or is this just not good enough? where do i stand legally?

i only ofund out in october that the 20 days holiday i was told i had was only 20 days at 8 hours despite me working a ten hour day!! i would have known this if i had a contract.

my manager also makes comments like, you have to look busy or they might cut your hours. this worries me as i need a secure job. can they do this?

thanks

ps i am in nrothern ireland, dont kow if that makes a difference.

needaspirin

Employment Contracts

An employee always has a contract of employment with her/his employer. The employee may not have anything in writing, but a contract will still exist. This is because the employee's agreement to work for the employer, and the employer's agreement to pay the employee forms a contract.

All employees, irrespective of the number of hours they work, are entitled to a written statement of their main terms and conditions of employment within two months of starting work. The employee is entitled to this statement even if her/his employment finishes before the two-month period comes to an end, but her/his employment must have been expected to last for more than one month and s/he must work for at least one month. The written statement must include details of disciplinary, dismissal and grievance procedures.


Holiday Pay


Holiday pay is paid at the rate of a normal week's pay for each week of leave.
A normal week's pay is either:-

*
for a worker with regular working hours, her/his earnings for a normal working week, after tax and national insurance contributions have been deducted; or
*
for a worker whose normal working hours vary from week to week, the average net hourly rate of pay multiplied by an average of the normal weekly working hours over the previous twelve weeks.

Overtime hours of work do not count towards normal weekly hours of work unless the worker is contractually obliged to work a specific number of hours guaranteed overtime. If the worker regularly works a set number of hours overtime, advice should be sought from a specialist employment adviser.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has held that if a worker is entitled to overtime pay but does not have fixed hours of work, s/he cannot have normal working hours. 'Fixed hours' means 'actual fixed hours' not an estimate of actual hours, even if the estimate is a genuine estimate. This means that when calculating holiday pay for a worker who is entitled to overtime pay but who does not have fixed hours, holiday pay must be calculated using her/his average weekly pay over the previous twelve-week period.

Savvy_Sue

Excellent response from needsaspirin.

I don't know if ACAS covers NI, but if they do, they're definitely worth a call if you need some backup when raising the subject with your employer.

rjh090384

thanks very much. tbh the main reason i want tit is cos i wnAT TO LEAVE AND DONT KNOW HOW MUCH NOTICE I HAVE TO GIVE. oops sorry for caps!

needaspirin

Hi RJH,

Statutory Minimum Notice

The notice that an employee should give her/his employer before resigning should be in the contract.

If the employee has no notice provision in her/his contract, then if the employee has worked for one month or more, the statutory minimum notice s/he should give is one week.

rjh090384

thanks for ur help. can they cut my hours??

needaspirin

If the employer wants to reduce the employee's hours of work so that s/he earns less, this is actually a pay cut. Unless the contract contains a variation term allowing the hours to be changed, this will be a breach of contract and possibly an unauthorised deduction from wages.
As you have no written contract, but a verbal agreement over hours and pay, a cut in hours would be a breach of contract. (Unless this was part of the verbal agreement).
Beware though, because you have worked for less than 1 year, you are not protected from unfair dismissal

Bossyboots

I've been working for my employer for nearly 13 years and still haven't got a contract of employment. I don't even have a letter offering me a job which would normally set out basic terms as I just fell into the job and let it evolve without ever formally agreeing anything. As that works to my advantage more than the company's, I don't feel inclined to rock the boat.

needaspirin

An employee always has a contract of employment with her/his employer. The employee may not have anything in writing, but a contract will still exist. This is because the employee's agreement to work for the employer, and the employer's agreement to pay the employee forms a contract.

Bossyboots

needaspirin wrote:

An employee always has a contract of employment with her/his employer. The employee may not have anything in writing, but a contract will still exist. This is because the employee's agreement to work for the employer, and the employer's agreement to pay the employee forms a contract.

Yes, I should have put that I don't have a written contract of employment.

The best example of where this is to my advantage is that I have never had to abide by an apparent company rule not to take holiday in December and I never work the period between Christmas and New Year.

needaspirin

You must be well favoured then to get away with it.