Employees are entitled to a written statement setting out the basic particulars of employment after a month of employment under Section 1 of the Employment Rights Act. This must be provided within two months from the employee’s start date. Failure to provide employees with this can lead to up to four weeks’ pay as compensation (if brought with another successful claim – in this case unfair dismissal).
The Tribunal decided that the employee who had been unfairly dismissed after six weeks was not entitled to compensation, even though they hadn’t received a written statement, because the employer had two months to provide this.
The EAT disagreed and decided all employees who have worked for a month or more must be given this written statement, regardless of whether they have left the job before the two-month requirement to provide the statement.
Incidentally from 2020, all employees and workers will be entitled to a ‘Section 1 Statement’ from the first day of their employment.
