An employee's contract of employment is the foundation stone of his or her relationship with the employer, and gives the employee many important legal rights. These contractual rights may be more generous than the rights that the employee is given by employment legislation. For example, many employees are entitled under their contracts of employment to sick pay or maternity rights that are better than those laid down by statute.
Although contractual rights can build upon statutory rights, they cannot undercut them. For example, if a contract specifies that an employer is entitled to terminate the contract by giving one week's notice, but the employment legislation sets down a minimum period of two weeks' notice, then the legislation prevails. And if a worker is entitled to the national minimum wage, that overrides any lower rate of pay set out in his or her contract.
A model document setting out the main terms and conditions of employment can be found elsewhere in this Guide (model documents).
This section sets out the legal principles that apply to how employment contracts are formed (forming the contract). It then goes on to describe the content of employment contracts. The employer and employee will expressly agree many important terms of the contract (express terms), but there are other significant terms that will be implied (implied terms).
A contract of employment does not need to be in writing to be legally valid and enforceable. An employer does, however, have a legal obligation to give its employees written information about the main terms and conditions of their employment, and this section explains what is required (documenting the contract).
Because a contract of employment is a legally enforceable agreement, there are legal consequences where the employer or the employee fails to abide by the contract's terms, and this section sets out what they are (enforcing the contract).
This section explores the distinction between those who work for their employer under a contract of employment and those who have some other form of contract with the employer, and explains the legal implications of that distinction. It also explains the protection that employees have from unjustified discrimination if they work on a fixed-term basis (employment status).
Separate sections of the Guide set out the legal principles that apply where the original terms of a contract are amended ( Changes to contracts ) or where a contract is terminated (terminating employment) and to discrimination against part-timers (part-time working ).