Contracts and Handbooks

We still see plenty of contracts and handbooks which are not compliant with legislative requirements. Employers may cobble together their own versions or adapt others they have seen or been given. An incomplete set of documents can itself lead to a claim in the Employment Tribunal as part of other proceedings.

If you do find yourselves in an Employment Tribunal then you want your documents to be up to date and compliant. You should spend time on your contracts as they form the basis of the employer/employee and employer/worker relationship. Whenever there is an issue or query you should be able confidently to refer to your contract and any accompanying policies and procedures.

Getting it right from the start is essential. We can provide what you need and it will be up to date and compliant, and we will be able to change it for you when legislation requires. This means that you start with the right documents in place, and you will continue to have the right documents in place.

We can also advise on consultancy agreements, statements of terms of employment for workers and atypical contracts, such as those for fixed-term and part-time employees/workers.

Data Protection in Employment

Data protection was the talk of the business world in the months leading up to GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 which came into force in May of that year. Seminars were given, scalpels were taken to databases and offices tidied, with clear desk policies and the destruction of files and the Information Commissioner’s Office there to levy hugely increased fines in the event of a breach.

May 2018 came and went, and we sensed there was a collective sigh of relief. Some of the new rules and procedures you introduced may be observed in name only, and some of the bad old habits creep back in.

Data protection is here to stay and is often in the news, particularly where a big organisation has a data breach. The ICO is already imposing significant fines. Data breaches occur and should be dealt with.

It is important to have the right data protection documentation in place across the board, including in relation to employees. We have a suite of documents which can help you with this, including privacy notices for employees and interviewees. We can also assist with data subject access requests, which are becoming more prevalent and compliance generally. We can provide you with the data protection documents for your employment handbook at a fixed price.