Staff Contracts

[sharonash]

I need to revise my staff contracts as I am such as staff not attending meeting out of hours, summer fairs etc.

I dont think I can change my contracts once they have been issued?

but i can do new ones for the new staff?

 

Can someone advise me on this also does anyone have a sample job contract I could have a look at please?

 

cheers

 

Didnt preview post as rushing out,oops mistake it doesnt make sense!

Meant to say I am having problems with staff not turning up to meetings etc

 

thanks

[Inge]

try the following to see previous discussions on this

 

staff contracts

 

staff contracts 2

 

and another!!

 

Inge

[hali]

i think you can change them but have to give staff a lot of warning/notice.

[Guest]

Variations of contracts from the DTI website

 

Variation of contract

The contract of employment is binding on both parties. This means that it is unlawful for one party to vary the terms and conditions in the contract without the agreement of the other. The contract itself may, however, include provisions allowing the employer to make important changes - for example, requiring the employee to move to a different place of work or to undertake a different type of work. In the case of a change covered by a provision of this kind, there is no variation of the terms and conditions in the contract and the change will be lawful.

 

It is always open to either party to seek to renegotiate the terms and conditions with the other. A variation may be made by agreement between the employer and the employee. It may alternatively result from a variation by collective agreement, where the contract itself (either expressly or by implication, such as through long standing custom and practice) provides for this. A collective agreement is one made between, on the one hand, an employer or an association representing employers and, on the other, a trade union representing employees.

 

The contract may provide for its terms to be varied by a particular collective agreement even if the employee is not a member of a trade union (so that, for example, collectively negotiated pay agreements can be incorporated into all employees' contracts). An employee's written statement of employment particulars must specify any collective agreements that directly affect his or her terms and conditions (including, where the employer is not a party, the identities of the parties).

 

If a variation of contract affects one or more of the terms and conditions required by law to be covered in the employee's written statement of employment particulars, then the employee must be given written notification of this. The notification must be given as soon as possible, and at any rate no later than one month after the variation is made. (Again, further details can be found in:

 

Written statement of employment particulars - Guidance

 

It should be noted that if an employee finds a variation of contract unsatisfactory but nevertheless continues to work under the new terms and conditions without making his or her objections known to the employer, he or she could after a time be deemed to have implicitly accepted it and it would then become incorporated into the contract.

Refusal by employee to authorise variation

 

If the employer wishes to vary the terms and conditions of employment and the employee, having been consulted, objects to the variation, then the employer may decide to terminate the contract by dismissing the employee. As usual in the event of dismissal, the appropriate statutory or contractual notice (or pay in lieu of notice) would have to be given and any other contractual obligations relating to the termination of employment would have to be fulfilled. Further details of notice entitlement can be found in

 

 

Rights to notice and reasons for dismissal

The employer would then be free to offer the job on different terms and conditions either to the dismissed employee or to another applicant. If the employer dismisses and offers to re-employ all employees in a particular category he will not have to go through the new dismissal and disciplinary procedures which apply from 1 October 2004 (see New legislation for resolving disputes in the workplace). However, if he only selects certain employees for dismissal for re-employment, he will have to go through those procedures and a failure to do so will make the dismissals automatically unfair. In the case of a dismissal, the employee does not need to go through the grievance procedure.

If the dismissed employee considered the employer's actions to have been unfair, he or she would be entitled to make a complaint of unfair dismissal to an employment tribunal - provided that he or she had completed a qualifying period of at least one years' continuous service. Such complaints must normally be made within three months of the date the employment ended. However, from 1 October 2004, the time limit for claims will be extended in specified circumstances connected with statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedures. The tribunal can also consider a complaint made outside the three-month time limit if they believe it was not reasonably practicable for the employee to have made the complaint within it and that it has been made within such further period as they consider reasonable.

 

The tribunal would consider all the circumstances of the case in deciding whether or not the dismissal was in fact unfair. These would include the employer's reasons for wishing to vary the terms and conditions - overriding business considerations, for example, might make the dismissal fair - and the employee's reasons for opposing the variation. (Further information can be found in:

 

 

Department of Trade and Industry

 

 

Peggy