Changing Employment Contracts and Terms
Employment terms often need to change after employment begins. This section brings together documents for employers who need to record, implement, or manage changes to roles, responsibilities, working hours, pay, location, contractual terms, and other key aspects of the employment relationship.
It covers both permanent and temporary changes. That includes agreed contractual variations, probation-related changes, secondments, TUPE communications, and lay-off or short-time working arrangements where reduced work needs to be managed properly.
Where terms are being changed, employers should make sure the change is documented appropriately. In many cases that will also require employee consent and, for more significant changes, consultation.
Contract Changes and Employment Variations
The Variation of Employment Contracts section includes templates for a range of common employment changes, including changes to hours, location, pay, Sunday working, minimum wage updates, salary sacrifice, alternative work, and Working Time Directive opt-outs.
If the proposed changes are substantial, it may be more practical to replace the existing contract altogether. Alternative agreements are available in Contracts of Employment.
Temporary Changes, Probation, and Secondments
This section also includes documents for temporary or role-related changes during employment. These are useful where the employment relationship is changing without coming to an end.
The lay-off and short-time working documents cover temporary reduced-work arrangements used where there is a downturn in available work. They include guidance, notices, and contractual documents for employers who have, or need to introduce, the right to use those arrangements.
The Effective Handing of Probationary Periods section provides guidance, policies, letters, and forms for managing probationary periods and documenting the possible outcomes. The Employee Secondment Document Templates section covers internal and external secondments, including the written agreements needed to record them properly.
TUPE and Business Transfer Communications
Where a business transfer or service provision change affects employees, the TUPE Letters section provides template communications for transferors and transferees.
These documents are designed to help employers communicate the process more clearly and handle employee-facing TUPE issues in a more organised way.
Changing Employment Contracts and Terms is part of Employment. Just £38.50 + VAT provides unlimited downloads from Employment for 1 year.
Frequently Asked Questions
I need to change an employee's hours or pay. Do I need their agreement before the change takes effect? +
Usually yes, but not always. Agreement is the general rule, since employment contracts are normally varied by mutual consent. A change can take effect without the employee's fresh agreement where: there is a clause in the contract (a 'flexibility' or 'variation' clause) that lets you make the change without agreement; you have a 'collective agreement' with a recognised trade union and the union agrees the change on behalf of employees, which can bind even non-members; the change happens through 'custom and practice'; or, as a last resort after full consultation, you impose the change or dismiss and re-engage on new terms (sometimes called 'fire and rehire'). A flexibility or variation clause is interpreted by courts and tribunals as only permitting reasonable changes, so it must be properly drafted and reasonably used. Imposing a change or dismissing and re-engaging carries significant breach-of-contract and unfair-dismissal risk, you must follow the GOV.UK Code of Practice on dismissal and re-engagement, and if 20 or more employees are affected you must collectively consult by law. Consult the employee, document the agreed change in writing and give written notification of any change to their statutory written particulars within one month of it taking effect. The Variation of Employment Contracts sub-folder provides ready-to-use templates for common changes, including pay, hours, location and Working Time Directive opt-outs.
My business is being sold. What do I need to do to protect employees' contract terms during the transfer? +
Where a business or service transfers to a new employer, the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) usually apply: employees transfer automatically on their existing terms and conditions, with continuity of employment preserved. Both the outgoing and incoming employers must inform and consult employee representatives about the transfer. The new employer cannot normally worsen employees' contractual terms because of the transfer, and dismissals directly caused by it are likely to be automatically unfair. The TUPE Letters sub-folder provides template communications to handle the information and consultation process for both transferors and transferees.
Work has dried up temporarily. Can I put employees on reduced hours or lay them off without pay? +
Not without proper authority. You can only lay off employees or impose short-time working if the contract expressly permits it or the employee agrees: there is no general right to impose unpaid lay-offs. Where lawful, employees with at least one month's continuous service get statutory guarantee pay for workless days, currently £41 per day for up to five days in any three-month period. After four or more consecutive weeks of lay-off, or six weeks in a 13-week period, employees may claim statutory redundancy pay. The Lay-off and Short-time Documents and Procedure Templates sub-folder provides guidance, notices and contractual documents.
I want to send an employee on secondment to another organisation. What documents do I need? +
Because a secondment is a temporary move to another employer or part of the same organisation without ending the original contract, document the arrangement in writing. You will generally need a secondment agreement covering duration, the host's responsibilities, how pay and benefits are handled and what happens when it ends, plus, for external secondments, an agreement between your organisation and the host. The Employee Secondment Document Templates sub-folder provides templates for internal and external secondments.
How do I handle the end of a probationary period and what documents should I use? +
At the end of a probationary period the employer typically confirms the employee in post, extends the probation with documented reasons, or ends employment, and the outcome should always be recorded in writing. If employment is ended during or at the close of probation, notice must still be given in line with the contract or the statutory minimum, since employees have basic employment rights from day one. The How to Manage Probationary Periods sub-folder provides policies, letters and forms to document each outcome consistently.
