Member’s Briefing – Ensure your Section 1 Statements are compliant


Return to the Office Refresher – Ensure your Section 1 Statements are compliant

 

All employees and workers (with any length of service) commencing work from 6th April 2020 must be issued with a written statement outlining their employment particulars. This is referred to commonly as a ‘section 1 statement’ as the legislation which requires this is section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. This should be provided before employment commencing or on the date it commences.  

What are the changes? 

Now that work from home guidance has been relaxed and many will be returning to the office after working from home for over 2 years, we would like to remind our member companies of the April 2020 changes in rules in relation to section 1 statements. It is a good time to review your statements, as in the landscape of the pandemic these changes may have been missed. 

To make sure your section 1 statements are compliant with the changes imposed, please ensure they now include the below:  

  • The days of the week the worker is required to work, whether the working hours may be variable and how any variation will be determined. 
  • Any other paid leave to which the worker is entitled. This includes things such as maternity or paternity leave, parental bereavement leave, shared parental leave, and adoption leave. 
  • Details of any benefits provided by the employer that are not already included in the statement. If there are no benefits, this should also be expressed in the statement. 
  • Any probationary period that applies, including any conditions and the duration. 
  • Any training entitlement provided by the employer, including any training that is mandatory and any training that the worker must bear the cost of. 

Other important considerations 

Since April 2020, these statements must now be given to workers as well as employees. This includes agency workers, casual workers, and zero-hours workers. Formerly, an employer had two months from the start of an employee’s employment to provide the employee with a section 1 statement. This is now a day one right. 

What do we need to do? 

Please review your statement of employment particulars and ensure the points above are included. In the event you have any employees who started after this date that do not have statements containing the above, then you must provide them with one which complies within one month of any request. There is no need to amend the statements of employees and workers who started prior to the changes coming into effect on 6th April 2020.  

Are there any risks of not complying with the new changes? 

An employee cannot bring a solo claim for failure to provide a section 1 statement to the employment tribunal. However, they may raise a section 1 statement claim alongside another claim. If successful, an employee can be awarded two to four weeks’ additional pay (capped at £571 p/w). This means, for example, if in an unfair dismissal claim the employee can show that they were not issued with a compliant section 1 statement, they will receive an additional two to four weeks’ pay.  

If you have any questions about section 1 statements of employment particulars, please get in touch with our Legal & HR Team on 0141 221 3181 who will be glad to advise.