Where an employee has agreed to a variation to one or more of the terms of their contract of employment, you need to ensure this is properly recorded in writing. In any event, if the change is to one of the clauses required by the employee’s written statement of employment particulars, the employee must receive written notification within one month of the change.
WRITTEN CONSENT
If the employee is willing to accept the change, it can then be incorporated into their contract of employment and, for the avoidance of doubt, their consent to it should be obtained in writing. The best way to do this is to issue a new contract of employment for signature: use our letter for this purpose. Although an informal agreement is equally effective, there may subsequently be a dispute as to precisely what was agreed. Therefore, it’s important to make sure that the employee’s agreement is carefully documented in writing.
STATEMENT OF CHANGE
If a variation of contract affects one of the terms and conditions required by law to be covered in the employee’s written statement of employment particulars, then you must give the employee written notification of this as soon as possible, and, in any event, not later than one month after the change takes effect.