Staff contracts

unlucky67

Was also going to recommend ACAS webpage for templates etc - they are fantastic...
You need to give a written statement of employment within 3 months of employee starting ... You need to state something like 'overpayments of salary or holiday pay etc may be deducted from your final salary'.
Also if you are a member of Fed of small businesses they have a legal helpline and can offer advice
And your insurance company may have a helpline or similar too - especially if they cover legal costs - in fact they might not cover such costs if you're contracts aren't up to scratch....
(If you have a contract from a large employer - your own or someone else's -might be worth reading through for ideas...
I know I'm a cynic but remember you can always be nicer than your contract says - but not the other way round - make sure you (within the law) cover yourself from anyone who tries to take the mickey...(rare but they do exist)
eg say you say you will only pay SSP - but a valued member of staff is sick -you can still chose to pay them - but if you say you will pay 10 days sick a year and have someone is 'sick' for the odd day here and there - which turns out to be exactly 10 days over a year - much harder to do anything about.....

Savvy_Sue

unlucky67 wrote: »

I know I'm a cynic but remember you can always be nicer than your contract says - but not the other way round - make sure you (within the law) cover yourself from anyone who tries to take the mickey...(rare but they do exist)
eg say you say you will only pay SSP - but a valued member of staff is sick -you can still chose to pay them - but if you say you will pay 10 days sick a year and have someone is 'sick' for the odd day here and there - which turns out to be exactly 10 days over a year - much harder to do anything about.....

This is true, but you do need to be careful. For example, you may have two members of staff who are not equally valued, but if you treat them differently in similar circumstances you could open yourself up to problems if the one less favourably treated claims that it's because they are female / gay / black / Christian / married / pregnant / insert other protected characteristic here. It may take more than you saying "it's not because you are [whatever], it's because you seem to be taking the mickey" to sort the issue out.

unlucky67

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

This is true, but you do need to be careful.
It may take more than you saying "it's not because you are [whatever], it's because you seem to be taking the mickey" to sort the issue out.

I agree that's true - you do have to be very very careful ...
But the 'valued' member of staff won't be taking the mickey... so it will be exceptional circumstances
So you can treat them both the same and still not be open to the same degree of mickey taking...

Brassedoff

1. Can I write the contract myself ?
Yes, but get them checked. Or get an employment specialist on PPH to write you one.

2. Do I need to do anything with the contract to make it legal ?
Both you are you employee to sign it

3. The contract is important, if it is broken it will result in staff disaplinery or the sack, it will also need to be referred to if the other party does not pay any outstanding debts to my company, the other party may wish to refer to the contract if they feel I have broken the contract. So as i said it is important.
Huh?

4. On agreeing to the contract the staff member is agreeing with my company policy and what is expected of them in their job role as well as what actions the business will take in certain situations
Nope, do a basic contract, but put those extra things in your staff handbook, that's the way around tetchy issues.