written statement of particulars of employment - check-list

by Roderick Ramage, solicitor, www.law-office.co.uk

first published in New Law Journal (newlaw.journal@butterworths.co.uk) on 25 November 1994


DISCLAIMER

This article is not advice to any person and may not be taken as a definitive statement of the law in general or in any particular case. The author does not accept any responsibility for anything that any person does or does not do as a result of reading it.


This checklist and the notes to it as originally published were written to reflect the law as stated in the Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978 as amended by the Trade Union Reform and Employment Rights Act 1993. Those acts (and other employment legislation) were consolidated in the Employment Rights Act 1996 without altering the provisions relating to statements of employment particulars. This checklist and the notes to it have been altered to reflect the consolidation. All statutory references are to the Employment Rights Act 1996, ss 1 to 7 can be read by clicking here.

All employees with one months service are entitled to a written statement of particulars of employment not later than two months after the start of employment: ss1(2) and 198. This right originated in the Contracts of Employment Act 1963 and has been amended and re-enacted from time to time: in the course of dealing with dismissal and other employment matters one frequently comes across employment particulars headed with a reference to the Contract of Employment Act 1972 or even earlier legislation.

This check-list contains the particulars must be given with the relevant section numbers in the ERA. The statement need not be in one document, and this check-list, in an attempt to simplify the confusing structure of the ERA on this point, divides the different classes of particulars under sections A, B and C, according to how they are to be given to employees.

The particulars under section A must be included in a single document, sometimes called the principal statement: s2(4). The particulars under section B must be given but not necessarily in the principal statement. The remaining particulars, those under section C, may be by reference to statute or contained in other documents, which the employee has reasonable opportunities of reading or are made reasonably accessible, but need not be in the principal statement: s22(2) and 6.

A : particulars which must go in the principal statement

1. s1(3)(a) names of parties

2. s1(3)(b) date on which employment began

3. s1(3)(c) date on which continuous employment began

4. s1(4)(a) scale or rate of remuneration or method of calculating it

5. s1(4)(b) intervals over which remuneration is paid (weekly, monthly or some other period)

6. s1(4)(c) hours of work including normal hours of work

7. s1(4)(d)(i) holidays and holiday pay

8. s1(4)(f) job title

9. s1(4)(h) place of work or indication that required to work at various places

B : particulars which must be given to employee but not necessarily in the principal statement

10. s1(4)(g) period for which employment expected to continue if not intended to be permanent, or date that any fixed term of employment ends

11. s1(4)(j) collective agreements affecting terms and conditions of employment

12. s1(4)(k) specific conditions where employee to work outside UK for longer than one month including period, remuneration and return to the UK

13.* s3(1)(b),(c) grievance and appeals procedures

14. s3(5) whether a contracting out certificate is in force

C : particulars for which the employee can be referred to other sources

15. s1(4)(d)(ii) incapacity for work and sick pay

16. s1(4)(d)(iii) pensions

17. s1(4)(e) length of notice which the employee is obliged to give and entitled to receive to terminate the employment

18.* s3(1)(a) disciplinary rules applicable to the employee

* Where at the date on which the employee started work the employer and associated employers had together less than twenty employees, the particulars under items 18 need not be given and only limited particulars are required under item 13.

 

copyright Roderick Ramage

 

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