Employment contract - work hasn’t got a copy

[Khanga27]

Don’t want to detail reasons why requested at this stage, but I requested a copy of my employment contract from my employer, who I have worked for since 2016. I moved teams on a permanent basis in 2023 following secondment. When I requested, HR replied that they could not locate the original contract when starting with the business and that this would have been provided at the time of employment.

I would have expected from a data perspective in event of a data access request that this should be available for employees. Is there anything I can do from here?

Thanks

I don’t have any advice. But I agree with you. They should have a copy of all contracts surely?

Are you asking for a signed copy of your contract or simply a standard contract for employees? Presumably you don't have a copy?

If there is no written contract (signed or otherwise), and you disagree with your employer about your contractual arrangements, it could ultimately be resolved by an employment tribunal.

What size company is this?

I would have thought they’d need to retain copies. I requested a copy of my employment contract so would be the one I had agreed to at time of joining the company.

its a FTSE 250 company, so quite a big company.

Well yes they should have a copy but if they can’t find it they can’t find it. You also don’t have a copy. Why do you need it? Would a copy of the standard contract suffice?

I have enquired about whether there are more generic terms. I was told I was sent it at time of employment by email. I have checked my emails which go back to 2015 and I have my offer but no contract within that email. I’m quite a hoarder so I don’t delete or bin bits like that so I’m surprised I can’t locate it (although not completely ruling that out) and hoped there would be copy.

Basically i’ve changed teams and was informed the hour expectation differed in this role but I’ve had no contract update to support this. The company has been under new ownership since I started so just wary as well that my data has been lost as part of that (I’ve had to redo my ID documents for the company a couple of years back due to that being lost).

I have no idea where a copy of mine is either because I got sent it originally in a strange format years ago. If they dont have a copy and it benefits them by not having it then........ wouldn't trust it.

Is your private email gmail? I’ve also been trying to locate my contract recently and found gmail terrible for searching. I eventually found one email thanking them for emailing a copy to me, and I’m an email hoarder too so knew I hadn’t deleted it. I had to try so many search terms but eventually found it.