New ‘Day-One’ Employment Rights from 6 April 2020

New ‘day-one’ employment rights from 6 April 2020 will be implemented for all new employees and workers will have the right to receive a statement of written particulars from day-one of work. There are additional statutory particulars that must be included in the statement too.

This is a significant change from the existing position where only employees (i.e. not workers) who are continuously employed for more than one month must be provided with a written statement of terms within two months of employment.

Employers will need to be ready to comply with the new rules from 6 April 2020.  Three key steps are:

• Prepare your revised statement of particulars ensuring that it includes all the new statutory requirements;
• Consider who is likely to classify as a worker.  The statement must be issued to workers as well as to employees on DAY ONE.
• Ensure that a system is in place that describes employees and workers to ensure contracts of employment are only issued to employees and that a separate statement of particulars is issued to workers.