Kent Solicitors

Employers often publish to their employees' policies on various aspects of the employment relationship - dress code, private use of work telephones and computers, private use of company vehicles, policies on sickness, holiday pay, smoking and many other things

Be absolutely clear which are to form part of the contract and which are not - keep them separately

Contractual policies require the employer and employee to agree a variation.

Non contractual policies can be updated by the employer from time to time without the need to get consent from each and every employee

Lump them all altogether in one handbook or electronic folder and you could find that an employee argues that something you thought was within your discretion is in fact a contractual entitlement, where you have no discretion

Example: you set out a policy for enhanced redundancy pay in a policy and put it in a folder with other policies which are clearly contractual. You are going to find it difficult to argue that the enhanced redundancy pay policy is discretionary, rather than contractual

Michael Breeze, Kaslers Solicitors LLP 07 900 195 195 http://www.kentsolicitor.co.uk/

Labels: employment contract