New employment contracts
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• A revised guide to the Contracts of Employment Act 1963, as amended by the Industrial Relations Act 1971, is now available free of charge from local employment offices. Employees now have rights for longer dismissal notice periods, and from February 28 more details must be given of holidays and holiday pay; details of rights on trade union membership under section 5 of the Industrial Relations Act; any relevant information about agency shop or approved post-entry closed shop agreements; and information about grievance procedures and the various courses of action open to workers.
An employee will be entitled to a minimum of one week's notice after 13 weeks continuous employment, instead of 26 weeks, the present minimum under the Act. If he has worked continuously with the same employer for 10 years the minimum period of notice is extended to six weeks, and for 15 years the minimum notice will be eight weeks.
The Act already guarantees minimum pay to an employee who is under notice through sickness or injury. From February 28 an employer will be able to take into account any National Insurance sickness benefit or Industrial Injury benefit when calculating minimum pay. But he will only be able to do this if he operates a sick pay scheme which takes these benefits into account for employees who are not under notice.