A contract of employment may be either written or oral, or a mixture of the two.

Whilst the law does not require an employer to provide its employees with written contracts, employers have for some time been required to give employees a written statement of particulars within two months of the employment beginning.

The statement of particulars must cover certain terms of the contract. However, increasingly employers require more sophisticated contracts to govern their relationship with employees and include matters such as confidentiality, restrictive covenants and intellectual property rights.

Employers should obtain specific advice if they are seeking to amend employees’ contractual terms as changes cannot generally be made without the employees’ consent.