Terms of employment
When you hire staff, you should provide them with a written contract or an equivalent
written statement confirming their working conditions. You should ideally give them
their terms of employment on or before the day they start working. However, the deadlines vary depending on the type of information, as shown below.
Information you must provide to the worker between the first and the seventh working day:
- parties to the employment contract (employer and employee)
- place of work – if there is no fixed place of work, you should highlight that the employee will work in various locations and say where your business is registered
- title, grade, category of work or a job description/brief specification of tasks
- start date
- expected duration of the job if the contract is temporary
- initial basic salary, frequency of payment, any other components of remuneration.
If the work schedule is regular or predictable:
- length of the normal working day or working week (working hours)
- overtime and its compensation
- arrangements for shift changes.
If the work schedule is irregular or unpredictable:
- number of guaranteed paid hours and the remuneration for extra hours
- reference hours and days of work
- notice before the start of an assignment and deadline for its cancellation.
Information you must provide to the worker within one month from the first working day:
- For temporary agency workers, the identity of the organisation/entity where your employee will work
- training provided to your worker, if any
- number of paid annual holidays; if this cannot be indicated at the start of the contract, the procedures for determining it
- rules of any collective agreements governing the employee’s conditions of work
- the identity of the social security institutions governing the social contributions (if this is your responsibility as an employer).
For annual holidays, length of notice periods, working time and remuneration, you can simply refer your employees to any relevant national/regional laws and administrative provisions.
Minimum requirements for working conditions
Probation period
If your employee is required to serve a probation period, it must not exceed six months. In the case of a fixed-term employment relationship, the probation period must be proportionate to the expected duration of the contract and the type of work. In the case of renewal of a contract for the same function and tasks, you must not make it subject to a new probation period. Exceptionally, EU countries can establish longer probation periods in national regulation, if justified by the type of the employment or in the interest of the worker.
Parallel employment
As an employer, you cannot prohibit your workers from working with other employers, outside of the established working time, and you cannot treat your workers less favourably for doing so. EU countries can establish conditions on the incompatibility of parallel employment, based on objective reasons such as health and safety, business confidentiality, integrity of public service or the avoidance of conflict of interest.
Minimum predictability of work
If you offer a contract with an irregular work schedule, you must:
- give your worker predetermined reference hours and days
- inform your worker of a work assignment within a reasonable notice period established in accordance with national law, collective agreements or practice.
If one or both requirements are not fulfilled, your worker has the right to refuse a work assignment without adverse consequences. Even when national law allows you to cancel a work assignment without compensation, your worker is entitled to compensation in accordance with national law, collective agreements or practice, if you cancel a previously agreed work assignment, after a specified reasonable deadline.
On-demand contracts
If the national law of your EU country allows for the use of on-demand or similar employment contracts, and you want to hire your staff with these kind of contracts, you should know that the national law of your EU country must establish measures to prevent its abuse and misuse. For instance, national law might limit the use and duration of on-demand and similar contracts or presume the existence of an employment contract with a minimum number of paid hours, that will be based on the average hours worked during a specific period.
Transition to another form of employment
After at least six months of service and a successfully completed probation period (if applicable), a worker can request a form of employment with more predictable and secure working conditions, if available. You must give this worker a reasoned written reply within one month of the request. EU countries may limit the frequency of such requests.
If you are an SME, or a natural person acting as an employer, in some EU countries you may have up to three months and you can give an oral reply to subsequent similar requests by the same worker if the justification remains unchanged.
Mandatory training
If EU or national law require you to provide training to your workers for their tasks, you must provide it free of cost. Moreover, the training must be counted as working time, and, if possible, take place
during working hours.
In some EU countries collective agreements made in conformity with the national law
might establish different measures than those mentioned above, while respecting the
overall protection of workers. Some EU countries apply simplified working schemes for staff employed for a maximum of 1 month or fewer than 8 hours per week.
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