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It has never been easier to create your contracts of employment.

With Bright Contracts, creating thorough, tailored, professional contracts of employment is quick and easy. What was once a very expensive and time-consuming process (often involving a third-party service provider) can now be done on your PC.

  • Set up as many employees and contracts as required – there are no limits to how many can be added. You can import employees from a CSV file or sync with BrightPay.
  • Tailor your contracts by selecting or entering the employment details for each employee. All types of worker are accommodated. On-screen help gives a clear and concise explanation for any details you may not understand and for what the various choices mean.
  • Add your own text content to any contract. Browse our library of sample additional contract content to cover every eventuality.
  • Customise the contract styles, fonts, page size and margins. Optionally include your company logo.
  • Preview contracts as you build them. Print contracts or export to PDF when ready.
  • Add headers and footers with smart-text.
  • Record the contract date of signature.
  • Minimise effort by copying the settings from other existing contracts.

Your Employee Handbook. Your way.

Bright Contracts starts with a ready-made handbook that fully conforms to the latest employment law guidelines. Additional sections  that may apply to your business are a click away. You can be up and running in minutes.

  • An immediately intuitive and clear user interface makes working with your handbook quick and simple.
  • Start with the ready-made handbook template and add any additional sections that may apply. Edit, delete or re-organise the built-in content, and easily add your own content.
  • Optionally include a cover page with your employer logo.
  • Customise handbook fonts, colours, numbering, page sizes and print margins.
  • Include flexible headers and/or footers with smart-text.
  • Preview your handbook on-screen at any time while you build it (whole handbook or single section). Print or export to PDF when ready.
  • Print a handbook signature page tailored to your workflow.
  • Add your own private notes to help keep track of your decision making.

It‘s like having your own personal employment law expert.

You do not need to have any employment law or HR experience to use Bright Contracts – it's designed for everybody. Our goal is to help you fulfil your employer obligations quickly and easily, giving you more time to run your business.

  • The handbook and contract content for Bright Contracts has been created by a team of experienced HR and Employment Law specialists, all holding Chartered CIPD status and with many years of experience in the fields of HR and industrial relations.
  • On-screen help is included throughout Bright Contracts to explain any choices you may not understand and walk you through the options.
  • When employment law changes, you don't need to worry. We'll send out updates to the content for employment contracts and handbooks, which you can preview or accept with a single click.
  • Handbook content updates are non-invasive. If you have customised the built-in handbook, your hard work will not be modified. Instead, you will be notified of what's new with the option to preview the new content suggestions.
  • Contract content updates will be applied to new contracts only. Your existing agreements with employees will stay as they are word-for-word, just like they should.

Helping you stay in control.

  • The Bright Contracts employer summary gives you an overview of the state of your employees, letting you know if there are any upcoming or outstanding tasks to take care of.
  • Bright Contracts keeps a copy of each handbook version that you give to your employees. Previous versions can be viewed or re-printed.
  • Priority warnings are flagged for employees who:
    • Do not have a handbook
    • Do not have a contract
    • Have an expired contract
  • Other warnings are flagged for employees who:
    • Do not have the latest version of the handbook
    • Have a soon to expire contract
  • Optionally password-protect your employer data and/or any exported PDF documents.
  • Take snapshots of your data and roll-back at any time.

Latest from the Blog.

10
Nov 23

Posted by
Charlotte McArdle

Government Changes

The government has published a paper? which announces that, amongst other things, it will consult on proposals

  • to remove EU-derived obligations to keep records of working time.
  • to simplify calculating holiday pay.
  • to allow businesses to inform and consult the workforce directly about TUPE transfers if they don't have representatives in place, where the employee has fewer than 50 employees and the transfer affects fewer than 10 of them.

The announcement comes at the same time as the government is abandoning its proposed default repeal of all retained EU law in favour of a more limited repeal.

 

Working time records

The government intends to consult on working time reporting and other administrative obligations under the Working Time Regulations (WTR) 1998. It believes that the current rules place unfair burdens on businesses.

These proposals would include removing retained EU case law which requires employers to record daily working hours, including overtime, worked by employees. This case was decided under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Working Time Directive. Currently, the UK's Working Time Regulations require only that employers keep and maintain "adequate" records to demonstrate that they are complying with rules on maximum working hours and protections for night workers.

 

Simplifying calculation of statutory holiday pay

The government proposes to simplify statutory holiday pay calculation, subject to consultation. It identifies two particular measures.

The first is to allow rolled-up holiday pay. Paying holiday pay in this way is a fairly common feature for zero-hours workers who, due to the nature of their working patterns, sometimes don't designate days specifically as annual leave. Rolled-up holiday pay was held to be unlawful several years ago, but amounts clearly identified and paid as such could be offset against any potential liabilities. This has meant that many organisations have continued to use rolled-up holiday pay, due to its administrative convenience, and the lack of a practical alternative.

The second identified measure is to merge the two types of statutory holiday entitlement. A worker's overall statutory entitlement is to 5.6 weeks of leave (28 days for a full-time worker). Four weeks of that entitlement comes from the EU Working Time Directive. The additional 1.6 weeks was granted as a purely UK entitlement. Different rules have built up over time relating to how to calculate statutory holiday pay for the two types of leave, as well as in relation to the right (or lack thereof) to carry leave over to the next holiday year. The paper is silent on which set of rules would be retained. It remains to be seen whether the government will identify any other measures for simplifying holiday pay.

 

Relaxing TUPE consultation requirements for small businesses

The government will consult on allowing small businesses (employing fewer than 50 people with the TUPE transfer affecting less than 10 employees) to consult directly with affected employees. Currently, unless the employer falls within the scope of a micro-business, they must consult with employee representatives on the TUPE transfer.

 

Limiting post termination non-compete restrictions to three months

The government is planning to legislate, when parliamentary time allows, to limit the length of post termination non-compete clauses in the employment context to three months. The government does not believe that this will affect an employer’s ability to use paid notice periods, gardening leave or other post-termination restrictions such as non-solicitation clauses. Back in 2020, the government ran a consultation on measures to reform post-termination restrictions in contracts of employment. The consultation closed on 26 February 2021 but the government has not published its response. It is unclear whether the current proposal is intended to take over?the earlier consultation.

 

Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill (REUL Bill)

The government's much championed REUL Bill would have seen all EU-derived subordinate legislation effectively abolished by the end of this year by default, unless it was specifically retained. The number of affected pieces of legislation was estimated to be in the region of 4,000. The Bill allowed the government to extend, exempt or keep affected legislation, but the default position was that it would disappear from the UK statute book.

The government has now acknowledged the widespread criticism of this sunset mechanism and will replace it with a mechanism whereby only expressly listed legislation will be revoked.

It remains to be seen whether any items of employment legislation will make it onto the list of rules to be revoked. However, the government's announcements on TUPE consultation and working time rules suggest that TUPE and the WTR 1998 will be retained.

Aside from the scrapping of the sunset mechanism, the REUL Bill could still be significant for employment law in other ways. The Bill will do away with any remnants of the old principle of the supremacy of EU law as well as "general principles of EU law". In addition, the Bill effectively seeks to encourage UK courts and tribunals to stop and really think whether they should continue to follow any European Court of Justice (ECJ) case law, or domestic case law that applied ECJ case law. One area of employment law that has seen frequent ECJ interventions is the entitlement to paid annual leave.

Read more from the Blog >

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