Step 2: Employment documentation for the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018

The Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018, (the Act) is one of the most significant pieces of employment legislation in a generation. The government’s key objective in drafting the Act was to improve the security and predictability of working hours for employees on insecure contracts and those working variable hours. To achieve this objective, the Act imposes a range of new employment law obligations on employers. In this series of guidance notes, we take a look at practical steps you should take as an employer to ensure you remain on the right side of the new laws. In this, the 2^nd instalment of our series of guidance notes, we take a look at reviewing your employment documentation to ensure it remains on the right side of the new law. There are also three other steps to our guide on this new law. You can read them below:

• Step 1: Statement of core terms.
• Step 3: Review the types of employment your business has.
• Step 4: Estimate the impact on minimum payments and banded hours.

The Act comes into effect from 4^th March 2019.

Review your employment documentation

A key aspect of the Act is the prohibition of zero hour contracts. You'll need to review the terms and conditions in the employment documentation you have issued to employees to ensure that any zero hour contracts are identified and amended.

Prohibition on zero hour contracts

The Act prohibits the use of zero hour contracts except in situations of genuine casual employment or where they are essential to allow you to provide cover in emergency or short-term scenarios. In practice, this will mean your employment documentation must specify the hours of work you reasonably expect employees will be required to work per day and per week.

Impact on lay-off and short-time contractual provisions

In our view, it will also be necessary for you to specify that lay-off and short-time provisions in the contract of employment will be relied upon in emergency circumstances affecting the business.

Practical steps to take

We recommend that you:

1. Review existing employment documentation and identify any zero hour provisions.
2. For any employment arrangements which do not fall into the genuine casual or short-term employment exemption, remove any language which implies that a zero hour employment arrangement is in place.
3. Note that employees working variable hours enjoy the right to be put in a band of hours that more accurately reflects their weekly average hours over a 12-month reference period. This will be examined in further detail in our third guidance note on the impact of the Act.
4. Review your contracts of employment to confirm that the hours you reasonably expect employees to work per day and per week is adequately broken down.
5. Include the hours of work you reasonably expect the employee to work both per day and per week if it is not already clear.
6. Arrange to meet with employees whose contracts will need to be changed. Explain the changes you have made to the contract, why they are necessary and ask the employee to sign their copy of the revised contract.

The next instalment in this series will look at the impact the new law will have on your workforce planning activities. To find out more about how to prepare your business for these new employment law requirements, call our 24-hour advice line on 0818 923 923.