Tomorrow's Pharmacist October 1999 p55-57
Edited by Pamela Mason

Employment

Terms of employment - rules and regulations

By Kate Hodgkiss, LlB

Obtaining your first job can be exciting, but one of the first things you will have to do is sign an employment contract. The aim of this article is to help you understand the terms and conditions that should be offered by your employer.

The excitement of obtaining your first job can be replaced by concern at the thought of signing an employment contract - possibly the first legal contract you have had to deal with. But by gaining an understanding of the minimum requirements that an employer must offer to you as an employee, together with an appreciation of the additional terms and conditions widely offered by employers, you can find the task less daunting. This then leaves you free to concentrate on revelling in the fact that you are now going to be paid for your services and expertise - and you can also devote some time to thinking about how you are going to spend your first salary cheque!

Protection

Employees are protected by various pieces of legislation and also the common law rules of contract, developed over the years through case law and binding precedent. The most important statute that outlines many of the duties owed by employers to employees is the Employment Rights Act, 1996. This requires that all employers must provide employees with a written statement of their particulars of employment within two months of commencing work. While many employees believe this statement is their contract, this is not the case because the contract is formed when you accept your employer's offer of employment. However, because employers are required to provide these particulars, they are often incorporated into one document detailing the terms and conditions of your employment, which then serves to be referred to as the contract of employment.
The purpose of the written particulars is to ensure that the employer provides their employees with certain minimum information. Both your name and your employer's name must be included in the document, and it is common to expand this to include both parties' addresses. Two separate dates must be given: the first date is your first day of employment under the contract; the second is the date upon which your period of "continuous employment" begins. In your first job, these dates will be the same. However, if for example, your role changes and you are issued with a new contract, or if your employer changes due to a change of ownership of the organisation but your job is unaffected, your date of continuous employment will be shown as being the date when you started work for your original employer. This date can be vital because many employment protections require you to have minimum periods of service before they can apply. For example, to claim unfair dismissal you need one year's continuous service.

The employer must include details of your job title and/or a brief description of your duties. This is likely to be supplemented by a job specification or description, outlining your responsibilities. It must also state your place of work, which might often be expanded to allow for the possibility that your place of work might change in the future. If you have no normal place of work, for example, you are expected to be mobile, then the employer's address must be given. Where the role is not intended to be permanent, the length of employment must be stated. Also, the statement should outline the periods of notice you are required to give or receive in order to terminate your employment and, ideally, to whom the notice must be given.
The more interesting elements that are required by the statute, and the ones which many people are most anxious to check first, are the rate and method of remuneration, and the intervals between payment. (Note that the minimum wage for 21 year olds and above is £3.60 per hour). Other elements included are your hours of work - subject to a maximum of 48 hours a week - and your entitlement to holidays, which from November, 1999, must be a minimum of four week's paid leave. On a more serious note, the particulars must also include, if any, details on what sickness entitlements you might receive and details of any pension or pension schemes which apply to your employment.
If your employer employs more than 20 employees, he or she is also required to provide you with written details of the disciplinary and grievance procedures. The disciplinary procedure is intended to address shortfalls in either capability or conduct. The grievance procedure is intended to be a mechanism whereby employees can raise a grievance about their employment with their employer - effectively an internal complaints procedure.
These elements are the minimum statutory requirements, but it is common to find many other elements in your terms and conditions. For example, many employers include details of the procedures that you must comply with when notifying them of your absence due to ill health and injury (eg, who to call and by what time). Similarly, the terms might lay down a procedure by which to request annual leave. There are certain elements of the contract of employment which are considered by the courts to be implied in the contract (ie, there is no need for these to be written). However, for certainty, many employers write these implied terms into their contracts, for example, outlining the duty of confidentiality which must exist between an employer and employee. Depending on the kind of work you are being engaged to do, there might be a specific clause requiring you to pass the copyright or patent of any article or "invention" to your employer. Senior employees or those working in competitive markets might be asked to sign a contract containing restrictive covenants - requirements that you do not work for competitors within a specified period of leaving employment, for example. The courts will, however, interpret these clauses restrictively, and they should only be included if the employer can demonstrate that he or she has a genuine business interest to protect.
It is quite common now for employers, particularly in the larger organisations, to supplement a brief contract of employment with a handbook which goes into greater details about the organisation itself, its mission and the standards it hopes to achieve. Details in staff handbooks can range from the mundane (but often necessary) details about the organisation's tax reference, to dress codes, equal opportunities policies, health and safety policies and information on statutory rights such as statutory sick pay and statutory maternity provisions. Because it is virtually impossible for employers to cover every possibility, it is more than likely that once you begin work you will discover that information about your employment and terms and conditions will come from a variety of sources. Some of these will be formal and others will be informal; some will be written and others unwritten, etc.
Every employer conveys the terms of their contracts of employment differently. This is because a contract of employment is an individual contract between you and your employer and your terms and conditions may well differ from other employees. Whatever the form of the contract, it is vital to read any written documentation you are provided with by your employers carefully. Do not be afraid to ask questions before signing these, because your contract becomes binding once it is signed. Ignorance is, unfortunately, no defence, if the terms are clearly laid down. Most employers will be happy to explain any element that you do not understand, but hopefully forewarned is forearmed and you can look forward to entering into what will hopefully be a happy and rewarding employment relationship.

Ms Hodgkiss is a solicitor and is legal consultant, The Aikin Driver Partnership, London

Tomorrow's Pharmacist is an annual publication produced within the editorial department of The Pharmaceutical Journal