Employment Contracts, if you are not using them, you should be. This simple document, when used correctly offers the strongest protection for your brewery and its employees from mistakes, both yours and others. Your brewery is the legal entity that can be damaged if a disgruntled employee takes action against it. This damage would likely affect all staff and at many different levels.
If you are hiring without an employment contract you are basically working under “precedent” law, and in the event of a dispute that line moves regularly and, generally not in a good way. To use an uncomfortable example, if an employee is not working out for whatever reason, a signed employment contract would usually state that the employee may be terminated with two or even three weeks notice, or pay in lieu of such notice. If there is no contract in place, this period can be much, much longer and is far more susceptible to dispute. A written contract is, with rare exception, binding.
The employment contract must be signed before the employee’s first day working and it should be carefully worded, specific enough to bind the parties, but not so specific as to create more problems than it solves, it’s a fine line. As an example, If your contract says that the employee will be expected to oversee the duties of 20 floor staff but they prove to be incapable of this, and their responsibilities are changed, your brewery is in breach of the signed contract. Don’t include details in an employment contract that don’t have to be there.
I have brewery specific employment contracts and so far they have stood up – when signed and used. Those last four words are *very* important. Having this tool in place and not using it can make things worse. If some employees have contracts but others do not, more problems can be created. If you have legacy employees when you implement employment contracts, generally they would get contracts too, but they would not be as enforceable as those signed on or before an employee’s first day at work.
As with all of these notes, you can call me or email me for more details about employment contracts, but creating one specific to your brewery is not a free offering, it takes time to edit the base contract to suit each of your positions, like Sales, Production, Administration etcetera. However, calling and asking me questions is still a free service.
Finally, If your staff have the capacity to develop your own employment contract(s) I urge you to make it happen BUT, have an employment lawyer review it before implementing anything, as noted above, incorrectly worded they can create more problems than they solve.
Thanks, and have a good day.