WRITTEN STATEMENTS - 25.02.2020

Major changes to written statements

The law. Currently, only employees with one month’s continuous service have the statutory right to receive a written statement of employment particulars. This document - sometimes known as a Section 1 statement - must be issued no later than two months after the beginning of their employment. Many employers incorporate the written statement of employment particulars into a more comprehensive employment contract.

Right extended. On 6 April 2020 important changes will be made to the right to receive a written statement. The key changes are that:

• written statements will have to be provided to all workers, not just to those individuals who have employee status
• the right to a written statement will become a day one statutory right. This means any employee or worker who is hired on or after 6 April 2020 must be given a written statement of employment particulars before or on their start date at the latest (some limited information may be provided to them after this point)
• written statements will have to include more mandatory information (we’ll be looking at this requirement in a separate article).

Existing workers. It’s important to note that the changes don’t have any retrospective effect, i.e. you won’t have to automatically issue written statements to any workers who were engaged before 6 April 2020.

Tip. Our written statement of employment particulars can safely be issued to all employees going forward; workers should be issued with our casual worker agreement (not our written statement). Both include the mandatory changes but by issuing the casual worker agreement, you won’t inadvertently grant a worker employee status (see The next step ).

For a written statement of employment particulars and a casual worker agreement which includes the 6 April 2020 changes, visit http://tipsandadvice-personnel.co.uk/download (PS 22.05.01).