Employment contract

[whatoneardoesrhusnean]

I sent an email to my old employer (worked for the firm from March2023 - November 2023)

I email the HR yesterday asking for my employment contract as the employment contract was on the employees company IT account and employees were not allowed to save or print from that IT account/platform.

I got a reply few minutes ago saying

"Hi, I trust you are well.
We will only be able to provide you with proof of employment as you are no longer employed with the business.
Best Regards",

I have responded today i believe an entitled to ask for and get my contract and reference from an ex employer.

Is there a law that say companies can't provide old employees with their contract?? This is all new to me as I just got a copy of my contract from another old employer few hours ago.

Would they still have a copy of your contract as an ex-employee?

GDPR also states that a company is only allowed to keep personal data for "as long as necessary to fulfill it's intended purpose". You could argue that they have no need of your contract once you ceased to be an employee. An employment contract wouldn't be any good for showing dates of service, as you sign before/as you start so there's no end date in the document (unless a fixed term contract)

I also think it's odd that a future employer wants this. It's a personal document (as you say), and I can't see how they would justify (again under the requirements of GDPR) needing to see it

I have now sent my P45 to the background screening company since the old employer is not responding.
Even if they don't have the contract which they should as it should be on my file with them which is can do a SARs for 🤷🏽‍♀️
They can write a letterheaded paper to confirm I was an employee but all of which they have failed to do thus far even though I told them it was urgent.

I have never heard of a company requiring a copy of your previous contract.

they might want confirmation of your dates of employment - your previous employer are under no obligation to provide that. Your P45 should have your end date. You are entitled to do a subject access request, but depending on how long ago you left, they might not have it.

but again - they shouldnt be asking for your old contract . Thats very odd

They asked to see official prove that I worked for that company at the dates filled on my application and they gave examples of paperwork to present such as work contact etc and work contact was the only thing that jumped at me and easy to get and send to them hence o asked ex employer for it as it could just be sent via email. But since they dragging things & someone suggested P45, I went digging into my files and found P45 and sent it to them.
I only just recalled that I could have logged into my HMRC account and printed my work history to forward to them.