Contract of employment

Every employee and worker is entitled to a written statement of particulars on or before their first day. The requirement sits in section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, and since April 2020 it has applied to workers as well as employees and has had to be given on day one rather than within two months. It has to cover a defined list: the parties, the start date, pay and when it is paid, hours and whether they vary, holiday, place of work, the job title or a description of the work, any probationary period and its conditions, training, other benefits, and notice on both sides.

This template is drafted to do that job as well as carrying the rest of the relationship, so it should be given to the employee on or before their first day rather than following on afterwards.

The clauses that ask you to choose

Clauses 3, 8, 12, 14 and 16 offer alternatives: keep the option that applies and delete the rest. Probation, work outside the UK, pay in lieu of notice, garden leave and post-termination restrictions are marked optional and can come out where they do not apply. That is the part of the exercise worth slowing down for, because a contract assembled by deleting nothing tends to promise things the employer did not mean.

The three that need thought rather than completion

Notice. Statutory minimum notice rises with service, and a contract promising more has to be honoured, so the figure entered is a real commitment.

Restrictions. A post-termination covenant is void as a restraint of trade unless it goes no further than is reasonably necessary to protect a legitimate business interest, which means the same wording in every contract is the clause most likely to fail on the day it is needed. Our note on the non-compete clause covers the drafting.

Variation. A clause allowing the employer to change terms unilaterally is read narrowly, and in practice a meaningful change still needs agreement or a properly run consultation.

The law is moving, in stages

The Employment Rights Act 2025 is changing probation and dismissal, sick pay, flexible working and variable hours on a staged timetable rather than all at once. Two changes took effect on 6 April 2026: statutory sick pay is payable from the first day of absence, with the three waiting days and the lower earnings limit gone, and paternity leave and unpaid parental leave became day-one rights, although statutory paternity pay still requires 26 weeks' service. Other provisions have their own commencement dates. Check the current position before issuing the contract, and take advice for senior, fixed-term or variable-hours roles.

What sits alongside it

Most employers also need a written grievance and disciplinary procedure following the Acas Code, since an unreasonable failure to follow it can increase a tribunal award by up to 25 per cent, a data protection policy and a staff privacy notice, and a decision on which policies are contractual and which sit outside the contract so they can be changed without agreement.

For a senior hire, a role with equity or a bonus scheme, or someone joining from a competitor, the contract is worth drafting rather than completing. Our employment law and HR solicitors do that as part of a fixed monthly fee.