Preparing your Business for Changes in 2020

Preparing your Business for Changes from 6th April 2020

Statements of Terms and Conditions

As things stand, employers should give each of their employees a written statement containing certain basic information about their terms and conditions of employment. This statement must be given within two months of the employee starting work and is usually included in their contract.

But, from 6 April 2020 things are about to change.

Who is entitled to receive a statement?

The first big change relates to who is entitled to receive a statement of terms and conditions. At the moment only employees have such a right. Under the new rules employees and workers will be entitled to receive a statement of their terms and conditions.

When are they entitled to receive it?

The second change is all about timing. Employers can currently give their employees a statement within two months of their employment starting. This will change so that the statement must be given either before they start work or when they do so, although some of the information can still be given within the first two months of the employment/engagement.

What must be included in the statement?

The final significant change is to the content of the statement. Presently the statement must include:

• the names of the employer and employee;
• the date when employment;
• the scale or rate of pay or the method of calculating pay;
• the pay intervals e.g. weekly, monthly;
• any terms and conditions relating to hours of work, including any terms and conditions relating to normal working hours;
• any terms and conditions relating to entitlement: to holidays, including public holidays, and holiday pay: sickness and sick pay; and any other paid leave and pension;
• notice periods;
• job title or brief description of work;
• where the employment is not intended to be permanent, the period for which employment is expected to continue and, if it is for a fixed term, the date when it will end;
• place of work or, where the individual is required or permitted to work at various places, an indication of that and of the address of the employer;
• any collective agreements that directly affect terms and conditions;
• additional information where the individual is required to work outside the UK for a period of more than one month; and
• information about disciplinary and grievance procedures.

From 6 April this year the statement will also need to include information about:

• the days of the week the individual is required to work and whether or not such hours or days may be variable and, if so, how they vary or how that variation is to be determined;
• any other benefits provided by the employer that have not been set out elsewhere in the statement;
• any probationary period, including any conditions and its duration; and
• any training entitlement provided by the employer, any part of that training entitlement which the employer requires the individual to complete and any other training which the employer requires the individual to complete and which the employer will not pay for.

Who do the new rules apply to?

The new provisions apply to employees and workers who are engaged on or after 6 April 2020. Existing employees will, however, have the right to request a statement containing the additional information after this date, which must then be provided within one month.

Does the information have to all be included in the statement?

Most of the information must be included in the statement itself but information about: sickness, sick pay, any other paid leave, pensions, training entitlement and disciplinary rules can be contained in a separate document, e.g. a staff handbook, which is reasonably accessible to the individual.

What are the consequences of not complying?

If an employer fails to provide all of the necessary information, an individual will be entitled to make a referral to an employment tribunal for a declaration of what their terms of employment/engagement are. In addition, if an individual succeeds in certain claims in the employment tribunal (such as unfair dismissal or wrongful dismissal), the tribunal may award them a further two to four weeks’ pay (capped at the statutory cap) if their employer has not given them a statement of terms and conditions.