From 6th April 2020 all employees and workers are entitled to receive a Statement of Terms & Conditions on the first day of their employment or contract with any organisation. It has previously been the case that employers had 60 days in which to provide the Statement of Terms & Conditions but that will change on 6th April.
You should note that this applies not just to employees – that is those who work for you on the basis of PAYE – but also to workers.
Workers are people who are contracted to provide a personal service to your organisation, perhaps on a casual basis to cover for staff sickness or annual leave or as zero hours contractors. Workers have fewer statutory rights than employees but they are entitled to annual leave calculated pro rata. They are also entitled to the Statutory Minimum Wage, to be protected on the grounds of health and safety and to be protected from discrimination.
Workers are often confused with people who are truly self employed. Self employed people should have a multiplicity of clients, be able to send a suitable substitute, use their own equipment and they should not be bound by your policies and procedures other than those relating to health and safety.
The law relating to self employed contractors will also change on 6th April and I will write further on that subject in the near future.
The failure to provide Statements of Terms & Conditions can be the subject of an application to the Employment Tribunals and compensated by 2-4 weeks gross salary. Don’t get caught out – I can help you by providing template terms & conditions. Just contact me, Brenda Roper, on 07766 167160 or through my website bdroper-hr.co.uk