Statements of Employment Particulars

Does an employee have a right to a statement of employment particulars when employed for less than two months?

According to the recent judgement in Stefanko and others v Maritime Hotel Ltd, then yes they do, provided they have worked continuously for at least one month. The judgment was made at the end of September last year and was published on 19 December.

Automatically Unfair Dismissal

In this case, the Claimants were all employed as waiting staff by the Maritime. None of them had been employed for longer than 14 months.

One of the Claimants, Ms Woronowicz, was only employed for 6 weeks. She had complained of a failure to provide either a payslip or statement of employment particulars and succeeded in a claim for automatically unfair dismissal.

The Claimants were provided with accommodation at the hotel. None of them were given a contract of employment or indeed any statement of employment particulars at any time during the course of their employment or thereafter.

Appeal Decision

The tribunal had declined to increase the award by two to four weeks’ pay, as Ms Woronowicz did not have two months' continuous employment, two months being the amount of time given in law for an employer to provide a statement. On appeal the EAT decided that was incorrect.

The EAT held that the right to a statement of employment particulars exists even if a person's employment ends before the 2 months are up as long as they have been employed for one month. Ms Woronowicz was therefore entitled to the written particulars and an increased award.

The decision affirms that, as an employer, you must now provide all employees who work for longer than a month with a statement of employment particulars.

Changes due in April 2020

As of 6th April 2020, every new employee will have the right to a statement of employment particulars from day one of their employment. This is due to new legislation (Employment Rights (Employment Particulars and Paid Annual Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2018) coming into force.

Please refer to our article on Government Publishes Good Work Plan.

You can read the full judgement at Gov.uk here.

At Frettens, all of our solicitors offer a free initial meeting or chat on the phone to answer your questions. If this article raises issues for you or your business, please call us on 01202 499255 Paul will be happy to discuss it with you.