Who is right?

[flibbertigibbert]

DP works in the private sector for a media company (a fairly large one with 1000 employees around the world). He has no contract and no idea whether he has a pension. He earns enough to be in the 40% tax band, so it's not a junior role. I work in for a charity, and before starting i was sent a contract and details of my pension.

DP claims that this is just how things are in our different sectors. Is he right? Or am i right in thinking that his company are being a bit c*ap? I've worked for private sector companies before and I have always had a contract for a permanent job.

He will have a contract, unless he is self employed, and his payslip would show if he was in a pension scheme.

You are right.

Another thing - he gets 22 days of holiday a year and claims that most people in this country get 20. He claims that it is only public and voluntary sector workers who usually get 25. Again, I disagree on this.

Statutory holiday in the uk is 28 days, which includes bank holidays. So again, he is talking tripe.

Thought so. He does get bank holidays which takes it up to 28 total, but that's still pretty low IMO

I used to work for media companies (publishing) and I got 25 days holiday plus bank holidays and they're not known for their generosity as there's never a shortage of people trying to get these sort of jobs but 25 days was fairly standard so he's wrong on that one!

But previously I worked for a post-production company in the film industry and none of us had contracts ? I believe it its an assumed contract if you are on the payroll but obviously this will only be a statutory contract (maybe someone in HR would know for sure) and I certainly had no pension. Plus, we only got 20 days plus bank holidays because that was the legal minimum but I would expect a big company to offer more and am surprised he doesn't have a contract. I would check with HR as it may have just been lost or overlooked.

I work for a private company and had a contract before I started with them. I'm just about to move to another one and again, have a contract.

Is your husband sure that he doesn't have one? Is it possible he just doesn't have a copy of it? It seems very odd.

This is from memory (based on working in HR up to 2005 and my husband having some contract issues a while back) so don't rely on it. I believe the law says that every employed person is legally entitled to recieve a contract setting out terms and conditions within 28 days of beginning work, so the company is probably at fault there. Without a written contract the contract in practise becomes whatever you normally do even if it is not written down, this is obviously not an ideal state of affairs because it leaves things like notice periods unclear.

If he is paying into a pension then his payslip should (in fact I'm sure must)show the deductions, (a non-contributory pension being a rare thing these days), plus I think they'd be unlikely to accept him without some form filling.

Check the ACAS and CAB website and if it's something he wishes to challenge the firm about I would strongly reccomend talking to the CAB first who will guide him through the process.

Oh. ps, it might be worth him just asking HR for a copy, if he's been there a while he may just have forgotten it or not recognised it as such as it may be headed "Terms and conditions of employment".

My Dh has had to ask for a contract before now, in his private sector job, as he didn't have one. He does however only get 28 days leave, 8 of which are BHs and a further 5 of which are enforced on him as the company closes for a week,m so a whole 15 days to take when he likes - as long as its not the last week of the month and only in FULL weeks - dead flexible/generous

Its a job tho, it helps pay the bills!