Putting together Employment contract

Figment

Hi all, hopefully you can have a read over this and advise me on anything wrong, unfair or that could be done better. I have my first employee starting in a couple of weeks and i want to make sure everything is present and correct legally. Below is my first rough draft of the employment contract i will be giving them.

Any advice/comments?
What should i put for the grounds for dismissal?

Thanks,
Al



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I'm writing to confirm the offer to you, of the position of Graphic Designer, on a salary of €xx pa, commencing the week of the xx. I have enclosed the terms and conditions, which set out the finer details of the offer.

Hours are 9 – 5.30 Monday to Friday. With an hour for lunch.

Wages are paid at the end of each month minus the required deductions.

21 days paid holidays pa. A portion of those holidays are set days.
Holidays must be scheduled over 8 weeks in advance and agreed by Spoiltchild design.
Holidays cannot be carried over from one year to the next. Year starts 1st of February.

3 days sick leave pa

Probation period of 3 months. In which time either party can terminate the employment with no notice.
After this period notice of 4 weeks is required.

Review period is every 6 months.

Grounds for dismissal are:

The process for dismissal are 2 verbal warnings, followed by a written warning. After which dismissal will follow.

No paid maternity leave.

No paid parental leave.


All work done while in the employ of Spoiltchild Design remains the property of Spoiltchild Design.
Such work were permissible according the terms agreed between Spoiltchild Design and its client may be displayed in your portfolio along with a credit for Spoiltchild design and a link to the website.

From time to time you may be required to work overtime and you will make yourself available for this with reasonable notice. This will be paid as time in lieu.

This contract is valid for one year unless stated otherwise, if this contract is not formally renewed after that year, i.e. with in two months of year end then the contract is deemed to extend for another year.


All information provided by Spoiltchild Design, and information divulged to employees/contractors of Spoiltchild Design by outside parties in the course of business relationships is confidential: therefore, the undersigned agrees not to disclose it without the express written permission of the Spoiltchild Design.

It is acknowledged by the undersigned that information to be furnished is in all respects confidential in nature, other than information that is in the public domain through other means, and that any disclosure or use of same by reader may cause serious harm or damage to Spoiltchild Design.

Your duties involve meeting with and producing design for clients and preparing that design for final output. Taking part in the day to day running of a design studio. As well as any other duties that are requested of you.

the_syco

No paid maternity leave

Look up on this. You may get in trouble over it.

Bogger77

Hours are 9 – 5.30 Monday to Friday. With an hour for lunch.

is the lunch time paid, or not, you should specify hours/week.

Wages are paid at the end of each month minus the required deductions.

End of month? You should state date or day, ie last Friday or Last day of month. As for stating "minus required deductions", that's a given.

21 days paid holidays pa. A portion of those holidays are set days.
Holidays must be scheduled over 8 weeks in advance and agreed by Spoiltchild design.
Holidays cannot be carried over from one year to the next. Year starts 1st of February.

Legaly employee is allowed to carry over max. of 5 days. I think. Are you use you meant 8 weeks notice. I'd turn down any contract that expected 2 months notice for holidays. Max I've seen in contract was 4 weeks notice for week or longer.

3 days sick leave pa

Below legal minimum, 6 days uncertified, isn't it? Plus, you haven't mentioned certified sick days, and the procedure for dealing with longterm illness.

Probation period of 3 months. In which time either party can terminate the employment with no notice.
After this period notice of 4 weeks is required.

Again, 3 months is shorter than all I've seen, 6 months is usual.

No paid maternity leave.

Prepare to be sued for that.

No paid parental leave.

Again usually in employee manual not job offer/contract. And, are you sure you can state this, EU law is changing in that area.

From time to time you may be required to work overtime and you will make yourself available for this with reasonable notice. This will be paid as time in lieu.

Again, You can't state person makes themselve available for overtime, while they have to give 8 weeks notice to use the time accrued.


Personally, I'd never sign a contract if it was similar to yours. I suggest you pay a solicitor to draw up a template Offer of Employment for you, and get a HR consulting place to draw up an Employee Handbook. You only have to pay once, tax deductable of course. It'll save you in the long run, as things such as stating No Paid Maternity Leave, will leave you bankrupt after one trip to the Labour Tribunal/ Four Courts.

Figment

That's the type of thing i am looking to get right. Thanks guys.

As for sick pay there is no actual legal right to be paid for any sick days.

Bogger77

Figment wrote:

That's the type of thing i am looking to get right. Thanks guys.

As for sick pay there is no actual legal right to be paid for any sick days.

Must look up my last few contracts, all have had 6 pays uncertified pa.

Figment

Oh a lot of companies do it but there is no legal obligation.
Its been ages since have had a contract myself so i cant remember what was normally given. Is it 6 days normally?

WhiteWashMan

personally, i have never heard of an amount of sick days in a contract, at least not in this country. i know its an unsaid given in the US.
however, there is usually a number of days before you need a doctors cert, unless this is what you are talking about.
but since, youre not paying for sick days, i guess it really doesnt matter....

if you are going to have a diciplinary proceedure, then you need to give the reasons for verbal written and final warnings, including what is incvolved in an dismissal.
you also need to put together an appeals proceedure.

you also need a proceedure for reviews, and what they are for.

overtime is optional. people do not have to 'make themselves available' for it. you may be expected to do, but not forced to.

anyone who accepted the contract, and then expected it to role over without renewed negotiation, is a mug

2 months notice for a holiday, you are having a laugh arent you?


to be honest, its a pretty thin and poor contract.
you really need to get everything down so there is nothing ambiguous at all, and not loopholes.
id send you my contract, but i dont ahve an electronic copy of it. its quite big, but it coveres everything and is absolutely thurough.
i'll see if i can dig one up from somewhere...

seamus

Hours are 9 – 5.30 Monday to Friday. With an hour for lunch.

I'd say, "Working time is 37.5 hours per week. Normal Working hours are 9.00a.m. to 5.30p.m., Monday to Friday, though occasionally you may be required to work outside of these hours. Your employer will provide you with reasonable notice when working outside of these hours is required. Lunch is one hour, unpaid."

Bogger77 wrote:

End of month? You should state date or day, ie last Friday or Last day of month.

Not necessarily. Any contracts I've had always say "Wages are paid weekly/Salary is paid monthly". I've never actually seen one specify *when*, though it can't hurt to say "on the last banking day/Friday of the month"

Legaly employee is allowed to carry over max. of 5 days. I think.

Nope. Technically all leave should be taken within the leave year. When leave is taken is also on the employer, not the employee. So in Figment's case, he needs to keep an eye on how much leave his employee has, and either force him to take annual leave at the end of the year, or allow it carried over.

Are you use you meant 8 weeks notice. I'd turn down any contract that expected 2 months notice for holidays. Max I've seen in contract was 4 weeks notice for week or longer.

Yeah, 8 weeks is unreasonable. Even though you're a small operation, legally you are only required to give your employee 4 weeks' notice of annual leave, so it should work the other way too. Better to phrase it as "The normal minimum notice for required for annual leave is 4 weeks." At least in this way, you have a base, but obviously you seem willing (through the word "normal") to be flexible.

Prepare to be sued for that.

Not necessarily. I think he just needs to expand a little more on it. A lot of employment contracts state the law as part of the contract, to avoid confusion. He is not obliged to pay Maternity Leave, though he is obliged to accomodate it. Something more like, "Maternity Leave is provided at 18 weeks, though is unpaid."

For parental leave, I'd say "Parental leave is not provided for within this contract, but can be renegotiated when this contract expires" - You are not obliged to allow parental leave for an employee of < 1 year.

Personally, I'd never sign a contract if it was similar to yours.

Certainly, I'd be very dubious about it also.

A few other things I would do:

Separate everything into sections; Working Hours, Holiday Entitlement, Payments, Leave, etc etc etc.
Don't consign the job spec to the bottom of the document. Have a section entitled "Your Role" or something.

www.oasis.gov.ie should give you loads of info in terms of employee entitlement, employer obligation etc. I'd recommend burning the contents of those pages into your mind.

Figment

Thanks Guys.

anyone who accepted the contract, and then expected it to role over without renewed negotiation, is a mug

I am not expecting anyone to accept this. That's why i am presenting it to you knowledgeable guys to get your feedback to work up a good, clear and fair contract. Trust me, i want this person happy and working with me for a long time. An unhappy employee is counter productive.

When i have all the terms straightened out i will be presenting this to a solicitor for final once over.

I am also hoping to put together all this information and my research on the dgi.ie website so that other design companies and designers know what to expect and what to look for with an employment contract.

Eoin

Hi there,

As Bogger77 said, you should get a contract drawn up for you to make sure you have covered all the bases.

He is not obliged to pay Maternity Leave, though he is obliged to accomodate it. Something more like, "Maternity Leave is provided at 18 weeks, though is unpaid."

I didn't realise that - an employer has to allow maternity leave, but it can be unpaid?

Don't consign the job spec to the bottom of the document. Have a section entitled "Your Role" or something.

I would in fact not include this in the contract at all - just the job title (Graphic Designer). The job description should be a document in it's own right.

Probably not much point mentioning it again, but the 8 weeks notice for leave is not reasonable at all - however, what you could do is something like:
2 weeks notice for 1 weeks leave
4 weeks notice for 2 weeks leave
8 weeks notice for 4 weeks leave etc

Eoin

seamus

eoin_s wrote:

I didn't realise that - an employer has to allow maternity leave, but it can be unpaid?

Dept of Social Welfare pays a standard maternity leave rate. The employer can choose to augment that amount to bring it up the employee's normal wage, but they're by no means obliged to. The employer is only obliged to allow the employee to take the Maternity leave, and allow them to return to work after.

Figment

Cheers guys. One area i am stuck on is the rules/disciplinary section. I have what happens if discipline is needed but what can i put down that can generally cover behaviour, work and client interaction.

I cant just put down a list of "01) you cant poke clients, 02)..." as that could go on forever.

I will post up a new version when i get this sorted.

Bogger77

Figment wrote:

Cheers guys. One area i am stuck on is the rules/disciplinary section. I have what happens if discipline is needed but what can i put down that can generally cover behaviour, work and client interaction.

I cant just put down a list of "01) you cant poke clients, 02)..." as that could go on forever.

I will post up a new version when i get this sorted.

For this, your looking along the lines of "Professional behaviour is expected from employees at all times"