A Guide to Employment Contract Clauses

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Employment contracts are some of the most important UK business enterprise documents you will ever sign in your working life, and but they are written in a deliberately convoluted and confusing manner, which typically makes it hard to get the clear points of what you are signing up for. Take your time, and read and re-read just about every contract, but pay particular attention to the clauses, to make sure you fully grasp them. Employers can put some unreasonable bits in here, so it pays to know what each and every 1 means. Here are some of the even more prevalent employment contract clauses so you know what to look for. And managers: if you want these points enforced, be certain to contain them in your UK company documents!

Modifications in Circumstances and Individual Specifics

This standard employment contract clause forces all employees to inform the employer when their individual circumstances alter. This may well be accompanied by a list of circumstances covered by the rule.

Dress Code for Uniforms

If workers are needed to wear a uniform, this can be used to enforce how they must be worn. This can consist of stipulations relating to cleanliness and how they physically are to be worn - although it has to be topic to religious or personal circumstances which can avoid employees from complying.

Gardening Leave

This employment contract clause indicates that employers can make workers who have handed in their notice, or been dismissed serve out the remainder of their time at household. They will be on full pay, but with the benefit to the enterprise that they are held to the contractual agreements (e.g: confidentiality and exclusivity clauses still stay) and are available to be called back to function at short notice.

Workplace Conduct/Dress Code

Oftentimes, the employer will outline specifically the type of conduct and dress code they anticipate when employees are in the office - this would go here.

Workplace Relationships

If the employer chooses, inter-workplace romantic or sexual relationships can be discouraged here. This is specially standard when involving two employees of different seniority for the conflict of interest it would produce. This clause in a contract need to then detail what action will be taken in instances where the rule is broken. Possibilities consist of re-deployment or firing of one of the employees.

Restrictive Covenants

There are a number of distinctive restrictive covenants that can be enforced, and largely relate to restricting the employee's competition to his/her employer when he/she leaves. This can consist of area-covenants, which prevent employees working for competitors, non-solicitation covenants which prevents the poaching of customers from the former employer and non-solicitation of staff covenants, which avoid the former employee dealing with his/her former fellow employees for a defined time immediately after termination of employment.

Restrictions on Outside Employment

This is one of the additional frequent employment contract clauses. It in most cases prevents employees taking on any further work in the course of their agreed hours of employment, and demands written permission from the employer for work outside the agreed hours. This is typically backed up by a note that permission will not be granted for function that competes with the employer's business or that which will affect the employee's work efficiency.

Rights to Intellectual Property

This contract clause can be utilised to make certain employees involved in creative production waive any perfect to intellectual property, and clarifies that the employer owns any copyright or other IP right. This can be open to interpretation, so really should be accompanied by a definition of what the employer classes as intellectual property

Use of Protective Clothing

This won't apply to the majority of offices, but this contract clause is developed to guarantee that protective clothing and equipment is worn to comply with wellness and safety regulations. This section may possibly also outline the achievable disciplinary action to be taken in the even of a breach.

Preserve an eye on these employment contract clauses, and really feel free to seek legal guidance if you don't understand the practical application of any part of your UK company documents. It is too crucial to get wrong!