How I Draft the Contract of Employment-Step By Step - YouTube

Channel: Terry Gorry Solicitor

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in this video I want to take a look at how I draft the contract of employment
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for small business owners small employers who contact me on a regular
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basis for conflicts so I'm going to take you through my contract and the thought
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process and the important things that I see in the contract a lot to be careful
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for or watch out for okay so we'll start here this is essentially my template
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conflict this is my starting point so clearly the contract should be issued on
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the letterhead containing the name and address of the employer
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at the outset then you're going to address your letter your challenging
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conditions letter to the employee and you're going to send it out and
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duplicate once you're satisfied with it and the employee is going to sign two
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copies and you're going to take one copy back and then both of you houses have a
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signed copy of the contract of employment this contract will also keep
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your right in terms of your obligations on to the terms of employment
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information Act of 1994 which is the statutory obligation you must do this
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you must give employees a written statement of certain terms and
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conditions of employment within two months of starting the job so you
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obviously address your your letter your terms and conditions letter to the
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employee and you set out here the name of the the legal entity that is the
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employer so I could be a sole trader it could be a partner it could be a limited
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company you need to be careful about that they're in this force for a
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paragraph there's a line here at the end which are two lines at the end which I
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would strongly recommend and you'll see here it says for the avoidance of doubt
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I'm gonna highlight this for the avoidance of that these documents are
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not contractual and can be amended under a place of claims time of the discretion
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of I'm referring there two copies of the policies and procedures I need to start
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handbook will be given to the employee under separate cover but I am
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stipulating that those documents the staff handbook the relevant policies
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policies and procedures are not actually part of the contract and are not
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contractual now have a separate business or a separate video or other about
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whether the staff handbook should be contractual or not take a look at it on
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youtube you'll see why I don't recommend that it's contractual and you can see
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why then I am stipulating here that for the avoidance of doubt these documents
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that is the contract or the staff handbook is not contractual and can't be
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amended under or a place from time to time so I'm saying here that this letter
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and bonney's the entire agreement and understanding between employer and
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employee so today for employment and that's going to be here
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if the employee has started already you're gonna put in the proper
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commencement date of the enjoyment if the employee is going to start with you
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in the next week or month or so then obviously put in the correct date as
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well now you're going to have a clause here I would strongly recommend it
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subjective science actually completion of the probation period specified below
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that's very very important I recommend very strongly that you have a probation
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period of at least six months and that's extended but it should be extendable to
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eleven months that's in relation to a panel conflict you can also have a
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probation period in relation to a fixed term conflict but there are two types of
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fixed term contracts one is for a specific term for example six months or
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12 months or two years or indeed five years the other is what's called a
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specific purpose contract this is a contract for the specific purpose of
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doing something so a person could be working in your business or in your
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school or whatever for the specific purpose of covering for somebody on the
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maternity leave for example likewise you could have a specific purpose conflict
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for the purpose of a particular construction project or for a building
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project or for something of that nature in other words it's got a specific
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objective or a specific purpose at the contract only lasts for as long as that
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purpose is there he could be as a say maybe roadworks or building a big rage
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or something of that nature once the object is satisfied and achieved the
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contract is at an end as I said is a fixed term contract and that's for a
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specific duration of time it could be six months it could be six years so
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that's what you need to put in there if you are going for a fixed term contract
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one of those conflicts otherwise you're looking at a permanent contract provided
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the person passes the probation period you'll see here as well as something
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that's important which is in my contract that is a statement of the unfair
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decisions that will not apply to this initial consisting only of the expiry of
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the term or assessor of the purpose specified in this clause in other words
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if the contract is a fixed term contract for 12 months
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the very fact that the 12 months comes to an end means that the contract is
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over and it will not give rise to an unfair dismissal claim in other words
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the contract has simply expired in accordance with the terms okay the next
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thing then is your appointment is so you could put in there a solicitor
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secretary receptionist retailer systems support staff or whatever your job
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description is attached we show you the job description there at the end
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essentially at the end you put in a job description setting out the main bullet
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points I would suggest of the responsibilities and tasks involved in
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the job the location clause you want to stipulate or set set out exactly where
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the person is going to be locators and you're also going to have to stipulate
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if they are going to have to perform their duties away from the premises from
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time to time so you know they may have a job that will require some travel or
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they may have a job or you may want them to travel to different branches of your
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business around Dublin around Leinster or wherever it's important or that you
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put the location in relation to the job in the contract it's also important that
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you put in a clause providing for geographical flexibility in other words
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that you can be flexible or that the employee will be flexible in love in
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relationship locations of work to meet the needs of the business so that's
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important location this is the probationary period it's one of the most
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important clauses I believe in a contract employment especially every
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giving one to a person for the first time I would recommend a six-month
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period and that should be extendable to 11 months and I would also recommend
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that it states quite clearly that during the probation period the only notice the
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person employee is entitled to is one weeks notice I have seen contracts where
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they forget about the probationary period notice period and the contract
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itself will then have three months notice
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and after a mortix clear if the employee is not going to work out and then the
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employer is then stuck with the three months nor his period even though the
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employee may only be there for a month or two months or three months and even
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though the terminators at during probation they
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have left out the provision for one weeks notice in the probation period
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then they're stuck with the general notice period in the contract that could
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be a month or three months the hours have worked and it's set out here if
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it's a retail business that's important to it's an office obviously that's
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important so you should set out the opening hours of the business and you
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should also set out the situation in relation to overtime
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he's the person's going to get paid a normal rate for overtime are they going
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to get time and a half maybe double time and or is to no overtime payable in
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respect of the position it may be a salary job it may be you know sort of
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understood or certainly made clear for the contract that over time will not be
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payable but you need to make that clear at the outset because we don't then in
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the event of a dispute ie a person has the contract for 40 hours a week in
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their meet the end of doing an extra hour - every day after a period of time
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you get very frustrated and disgruntled and they would be looking to bring some
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sort of the claim perhaps for the extra hour world in the normal course of
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events quite frankly they are title to be paid for the work but if they're on a
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salary and if the contract says you're not going to get paid for overtime well
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that's fairly definitive saturdaya rate of pay then should be
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included in your contract as well so you should set out just you know how often
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they're going to get paid whether it's weekly monthly it's a etc and one thing
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you should put in if they are a retail worker for example or on a relatively
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low wage you should print up a reference page for the purpose of the minimum
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national minimum wage is this is actually a requirement requirement in
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the contract of employment that you put in at a reference period you also have a
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clause here you'll see where the company or the employer either
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reserves the right to deduct from your wages on it so much due to it so you
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know this might include overpayment of wages or something of that nature
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I knew leaved and that's governed by the organisation of working time I said 1997
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however your employment may provide more generous
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enjoyment or any relief provisions if that's the case it should be stipulated
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here one thing that you might not hear is this except in special circumstances
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no more than ten days may be taken at any one time so 10 days leave with
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essentially two weeks so a lot of employers will it's just that the
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employee chopping off more than two weeks another thing that you may
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consider it's a certain number of your onion leaves it's never taken or maybe
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designators states that you must take us holidays when the office is closed
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during the Christmas and Easter holidays you'll be given notice of these days and
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events so if you're the employer you might want to consider this and just see
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if there are any particular dates that enclose for example Good Friday or
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holidays Easter holidays at Christmas or whatever if you want them to be
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designated as holiday dates where you need to specify it and set it out there
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the situation in relation to paint general is that there's no obligation on
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the employer to provide a pension however the employer should make
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provision for payment by the employee into a PS or a this is a private pension
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situation for the employee so you should make provision for allowed the employee
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facilitated payments into a PS PRSA of their choice and you should give them a
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list of approved providers if they request and you can get a list of
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approved PRSA providers online anywhere now the okay locally if you are an
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employer who operates a pension well then you just stipulate or set out here
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what's the situation they are what are entitled to what payments will be made
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etcetera censor retirement age I would strongly recommend that you have a
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retirement age in a contract if that's going to be an issue for you you do need
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to specify it or set it out if you don't well then you're going to have a
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situation where it may be very difficult to get somebody who comes to a certain
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age and you want to for intergenerational reasons etc promote
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younger people but if there's no retirement age of the contract will
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there in Irish law at the moment is king
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stand-in on 28th of March of 2018 there's no specified or particular
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retirement age unless you in the public service or in a specific job provided in
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which the contract provides for a retirement age illness then you should
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set out here what the situation is in relation to illnesses you should sell
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out the reporting requirements etc such now you may also have a start handbook
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and I would strongly recommend that you have a hammer start handbook the staff
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handbook should specify in more detail what the reporting requirements are in
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relation to illness how they report etcetera etcetera and you should also
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set out if there is a sick paint scheme what the situation is or how long it
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lasts for and so on and so forth or if the reason the sick pay scheme you
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simply say that the company or the employer does not operate a secret
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scheme and that is the legal position you note you're not obliged but some
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employers do maternity parental adopt upon forcement you leave and there are
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other statutory leaves as well again details of these should be set out in
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the start handbook so I would recommend it to the staff handbook and that you
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sell outdoors leave arrangements and the teittleman's in the start handbook you
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should have a confidentiality clause as well dealing with customers or clients
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of your business you know what any information or details of those being
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disclosed to animals or any notes or memoranda taken from the business you
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also may want to put into your contract restrictive covenant restrictive
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covenant is something that stops somebody from setting up a business in
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competition with yours only working in the same industry within a second
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separate or a certain geographical distance for a specified time for
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example six months after they leave you if you have a nail bar or if you have a
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hairdressers or something you don't want somebody setting up two doors down the
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street after they've left you and bringing you their clients with them you
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also don't want them carrying out work at home for example in their own house
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member in the garage or a converted shed or something and they're doing hair or
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to do it makeup or to do nails whatever you need some protection for yourself
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now your restrictive covenant that is your non-compete clause for when they
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leave the job must be reasonable so it can't be completely la-la in terms of
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stopping them from working for you know twelve months over the entire region of
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Ireland because people have a constitutional right here in a living
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but you also have a constitutional right and a common law right to protect your
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business but it does have to be reasonable as to time allows to
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geography what area you're looking to protect an important bunch of procedures
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will be those dealing with grievance discipline bullying harassment sexual
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harassment etc again start handbook so your three most important procedures
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grievance discipline and dignity at work you also have a data protection clause
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here which stipulates that saying it by saying this document you consent to the
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employer and maintaining personal data about you or retaining it and this is
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getting much more strict with the introduction of GDP or from a 2018 you
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cannot just rely on this simple signing of a contract as consent you really need
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a more lawful basis for a consent from the employee now you may well have that
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for example you do need to maintain records of employees for the Revenue
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Commissioners for the Department of jobs enterprise deployment and so on and so
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forth your statutory and legal obligations but it's not an offer will
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not be enough at GTB or GDP or comes in from a 2018 to simply get the employee
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to sign this and this gives you free rein to do what you like with the data
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that won't be the case this country's notice this clause here
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deals with the notice period in relation to the termination of employment what it
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set out here is the statutory situation you may require however your employees
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to give you more notice you may require fortnight or a month or three months or
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something of that nature and will depend on the nature of the job pay or
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termination then that's a relatively straightforward sort of charge you title
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to pay calculator once a week's salary Fridays work since
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you last paid plus any accrued holiday entitlements changes to your terms
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employment this is important however it's of limited value you are entitled
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to as an employer change the terms of employment however those changes must be
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reasonable if they're not reasonable you do need to negotiate the changes
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which are probably get them to sign up towards where you then we'll ask the
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employee to sign here and you'll get give them two copies and get from the
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sign board copies new take one back and they take one back and in the event of a
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dispute then both parties will know exactly where you stand down here then
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it's done description I would recommend a number of bullet points 5 to 10 molar
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points selling out the main responsibilities and duties associated
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with the law I hope you find this useful if you do you might give with a thumbs
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up down below and if you need a contract or staff handbook or whatever
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feel free to contact me and I'll be able to give you a quotation for a contract
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in the staff handbook contract on its own without a staff handbook is I
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wouldn't recommend I recommend getting the staff handbook as well because a
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contract quite frankly it's going to refer to the policies and procedures in
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your staff handbook and if you don't have a staff handbook then your contract
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is going to look like the upper with North laws as it were if you want to put
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all your policies and procedures in the contract well then you're going to have
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a huge unwieldy document and your policies and procedures are also going
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to be crunched contractual you don't want that because you want to reserve
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the right to change them or add or subtract as time goes on hope you find
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it useful given at the thumbs up down below he knew thanks
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you