True or False? Employees Must Sign Their Contracts of Employment For the Terms to Apply

To make employment terms enforceable, always get employees to sign their contracts

When you take on a new member of staff at your company, you have a legal obligation to provide them with a statement outlining the main terms and conditions of their employment within two months of the date they begin to work for you.

Such a statement should contain information on such matters as pay, working hours and holiday entitlement – in short, all of the essentials of the working relationship.

But if this statement or contract of employment is to be valid, does your employee actually have to sign it?

What the law says

The short answer to the above question is “no” – like other forms of contract, the aforementioned written statement can be made a legally binding agreement between the employer and the employee through conduct alone, with no need for a signature.

This means that the contract isn’t necessarily formed from the moment the employee puts pen to paper on the document, but instead when the employee agrees to work for the employer in return for payment.

A contract bearing both the employer’s and employee’s signature remains the best evidence of a binding agreement, but the terms may also be acceptable if the respective parties’ conduct has otherwise been consistently in accordance with the contract.

An exception to this is if the employee has asserted his or her disagreement with a specific clause.

So, which is best practice?

There is no statutory obligation for the employer to have a signature applied to the employment contract or written statement of particulars.

However, if you wish to minimise the likelihood of any disputes over whether certain terms or clauses in a contract of employment can be enforced, you are advised to consider:

Issuing new employees with contracts of employment immediately after their acceptance of an unconditional job offer, requesting that they return signed copies to you before they start work for your company
Reminding new members of staff on their first day working for you of the requirement for them to return the signed contract
Asking new employees after their first week working for your business whether they object or have any comment to make about any of the clauses in their contract of employment. If they do, you should make a note of this and address any objections
Having the contract with you at any probation meetings, so that signoff can be ensured prior to probation being passed

Even when the above guidelines are kept firmly in mind, contracts can still be a matter of confusion and difficulty for many organisations. This is why you may wish to get in touch with a leading provider of back office support for recruitment agencies, such as TBOS, to take advantage of the highest standard of assistance and guidance in relation to your contracts.