Firstly, it is a legal obligation to give some form of written statement on their first day of work (as of April 2020). Secondly, just because there is not a written contract, this does not mean that they have no contract with you. The law contains many basic protections for employees and not providing a contract for your staff will not prevent the employee from gaining these. It is of no benefit to the employer to not provide one. A well-written contract, however, can protect the business in the short and long term. For example:

• should an employee be overpaid, the employer cannot deduct the amount from the employee's next pay... unless there is a term in the contract which allows this.
• A member of staff could leave your employ and start up their own competing business, selling to all of your customers. There is little you could do about this without a restrictive covenant in their contract of employment.
• The statutory notice period that an employee should give his employer is one week (after one month's service). A contract can specify a longer period so that you have more time to recruit or re-organise the workload.
• A Payment In Lieu Of Notice clause will allow you to pay a member of staff but disallow them from attending the workplace. This can be a valuable option if their presence could cause problems or you are worried that they could damage your business in some way whilst on the premises e.g. malicious emails to customers, theft (possibly company records), posting defamatory remarks on social media or vandalism.

You've probably heard quite a bit about this area of employment law recently. The move toward a Gig economy has meant that many companies have used self-employed 'staff'. The reasons for this are varied including flexibility of the 'workforce'. A self-employed person has very few employment rights and many companies have exploited this. In short a self-employed person provides a service to a business/ customer and invoices for this. An employee has a contract of employment with a company and is paid a wage or hourly rate. There are various criteria to consider when deciding whether a person is employed or self-employed and there are many situations where the employment status is far from clear. The worker status is part way between employed and self-employed. Workers have some of the rights which employees enjoy e.g. National Minimum Wage and paid holiday. For more information click here to open the ACAS guidance.

Yes. The GDPR affects all businesses, however, if the company employs less than 250 staff then there are some rules which do not apply. You will still, for example, have to keep records regarding the type of high risk data which you hold. For more information click on the Link to the Information Commissioners Office or get in touch (details below).

Click here to visit our Holiday calculator. We even have an Android app which can be downloaded and used on your phone or tablet.

The current hourly National Minimum and Living Wage rates are as follows (as of 1st April 2024):

• 21 years of age and over : £11.44
• 18 to 20 : £8.60
• 16 to 17 : £6.40
• Apprentice : £6.40

Short answer: yes. As long as the employee notifies their employer as soon as practicably possible then the employer should mark the relevant period as sickness in the usual way instead of as holiday.

Yes. This kind of derogatory comment is not acceptable and is analogous to shouting their opinion in the street. You should conduct a disciplinary hearing in the usual manner, consider the evidence, their defence and make a decision based on all of these facts as to whether any disciplinary action is to be taken. If some form of action is deemed necessary then the level of sanction can be decided. A social media policy that clearly states acceptable and unacceptable behaviour can further consolidate the company's expectations in this regard.

Yes. Section 13(4) of the Employment Relations Act 1999 allows for this. Click here to view the ACAS guide to disciplinary and grievances. This right does not apply to all manager-employee meetings but if disciplinary action is a possibility then it will.

An e-mail and Internet use policy can explain what you consider to be acceptable in your workplace. If a member of staff does not comply with the rules set out in the policy then you are at liberty to deal with them under your disciplinary process. It is important to be fair and reasonable when doing so and accept that they may have good reason to use such sites e.g. break times.

If an employee regularly works overtime then this should be included in their 'working time'. What is considered regular is a grey area so it would be wise to err on the side of caution. The general principle is that a person should receive the same pay when on holiday as they would if they were at work. Overtime and other 'extras' need only be applied to the standard holiday allowance and not bank holidays i.e. currently 1.6 weeks (8 days). Click here to visit our Holiday calculator. ACAS guide to holiday pay.

If their place of work is open as usual and they cannot get to the site then there is no automatic right to pay. If your contracts or policies state that they are entitled to this then, obviously, this is overridden. You could offer them the option of taking it as holiday or as unpaid.