Keep Employment Contracts Up to Date - It matters now more than ever

We meet SME employers every day. And we are regularly surprised at how often their contractual documentation has not been looked at for years, sometimes for decades! Making it almost impossible for them to comply with current legislation.

Yes, new starters are usually given fresh contracts. But what about existing employees? They are often not re-issued with the relevant up-to-date contracts because of all sorts of excuses, ranging from “it’s not important”, “we have no one in-house who has the capacity to do this”, “we don’t wish to rock the boat with our longstanding workforce” through to “we will do this when we have the time” which of course never comes.

Employment contracts are the foundation of the employer-employee relationship. They set out the key terms of employment, reflect current legal obligations, and provide clarity for both parties. Contracts should reflect current practices and that means they need to be reviewed to reflect the current terms of employment, not the one an employee accepted when they first joined which are not clearly out of date.

The introduction of the Good Work Plan on 6th April 2020 may have escaped many people’s notice, due to the start of the pandemic. It amended the Employment Rights Act 1996, requiring all new employees and workers to have received a written statement of particulars on or before their first day of work. This requirement significantly raised the bar for what employment documentation must include. If your contracts pre-date this change, or haven’t been reviewed since, there’s a strong chance they’re no longer legally compliant.

Why this matters

Outdated contracts don’t just create confusion — they carry real legal risk. For instance:

Failure to provide an up-to-date statement of particulars can lead to Tribunal claims (often piggybacked onto other claims), with awards of 2 to 4 weeks’ pay.
Employees may be unaware of rights such as variable working hours, average holiday pay, sick pay entitlements or other new benefits.
Employers may unknowingly breach statutory obligations, such as the 52-weeks worked holiday pay reference period, introduced January 2024 for irregular hour employees and workers.

What should a contract include?

While every role and organisation are different, at a minimum your employment contracts should clearly set out:

The names of both employer and employee
Start date
Details of any continuous service
Place of work
Whether work will take place outside the UK for over a month
Whether the role is fixed-term or permanent
Probation period and associated terms
Working hours, days, and whether these are subject to variation
Rate and frequency of pay
Holiday entitlement and holiday pay (including how it's calculated)
Sick pay and terms around incapacity
Auto enrolment and pension
Any additional benefits or remuneration
Required training and who bears the cost
Notice periods on both sides
Details of all types of paid leave, including family-related, and from April 2025, Neonatal Care Leave
Collective agreements
Legal right to work in the UK

Additional matters, such as disciplinary, dismissal and grievance procedures, may be provided in a separate but accessible document. This list should then be added to on matters such as data protection and sharing of personal data, garden leave terms and a robust variation clause - to name just another three.

Don’t leave it to chance

If you're unsure whether your contracts are up to date — or if you’re confident they aren’t — we strongly recommend seeking professional advice. The cost of getting it wrong can far outweigh the cost of getting it right.

We’d be delighted to help, and we are very knowledgeable on employment law. Whether it's reviewing your existing contracts, drafting new ones, or advising on issues such as employee communications, or performance or sickness management, our team is on hand to support you with practical, legally sound advice tailored to your organisation.

The guidance provided in this article is just that - guidance. Before taking any action, make sure that you know what you are doing, or call an expert for specific advice