Right to a statement of employment particulars
07 January 2019
Does an employee have a right to a statement of employment particulars when employed for less than 2 months?
Yes, if they have worked continuously for at least 1 month, held the EAT in Stefanko and others v Maritime Hotel Ltd.
With thanks to Daniel Barnett’s employment law bulletin for providing this update.
The Claimants were all employed as waiting staff by the Maritime Hotel. They all had relatively short periods of employment of a few months. One Claimant, Ms Woronowicz, was only employed for 6 weeks. She succeeded in a claim for automatically unfair dismissal. She had complained of a failure to provide either a payslip or statement of employment particulars.
The tribunal declined to increase that award under section 38 Employment Act 2002, as Ms Woronowicz did not have 2 months' continuous employment; 2 months being the amount of time given by section 1(2) Employment Rights Act 1996 for an employer to provide a statement. On appeal the EAT decided that was incorrect.
Section 2(6) ERA says that the right to a statement of employment particulars exists even if a person's employment ends before the 2 months are up. Ms Woronowicz was therefore entitled to one, and an increased award.
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CIPP comment From 6 April 2020 (in England, Wales and Scotland) all workers will have a day one right to a written statement of particulars of employment. The Employment Rights (Employment Particulars and Paid Annual Leave) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 will bring this change into effect. These regulations also bring into effect changes where a worker has been employed by their employer for at least 52 weeks, the reference period will be increased from 12 weeks to 52 weeks. And where a worker has been employed by their employer for less than 52 weeks, the reference period will be the number of weeks for which the worker has been employed. This is just one of the areas of change under the recently published Good Work Plan which details major reforms to workplace rights, building on the work of the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices. |