What has to be in writing on day one

Since April 2020 the written statement of employment particulars has been a DAY ONE right, and it extends to workers, not only employees. In an industry that hires casuals, that change caught a lot of venues that had never issued anything to anyone paid by the shift.

On or before the first day

Not within two months, which is what the rule used to be and what a surprising number of handbooks still say. On or before the day they start.

What it has to cover

• Who the employer is and who the worker is, and the date the job starts.
• Pay: how much, how often, and how it is calculated.
• Hours: the days of the week they are required to work, whether those hours or days vary, and how.
• Holiday entitlement, including enough detail to work out pay for leave not taken.
• Any other paid leave, and sick pay and procedures.
• Any probationary period and its conditions.
• Any training you require, and whether the worker has to pay for it.
• Notice on both sides, and place of work.
• Any benefits, and any other regular role at another site.

The parts hospitality gets wrong

Two, almost always, and both are about variability.

The first is hours. “As per rota” is not a description of how hours vary. If the days and hours genuinely change week to week, the statement has to say that they vary and say how they are decided — when the rota is published, and how much notice a change gets.

The second is training. If you require a qualification and the worker is expected to fund it, or repay it if they leave inside a period, that has to be in the statement. A clawback nobody was told about at the start is not enforceable just because it is on a payslip at the end.

Neither of these is a formality. They are the two things people most often leave over, which means they are the two things worth writing down precisely at the moment everybody is still optimistic.

The full list, from the source: Written statement of employment particulars