Glossary

A · B · C · D · F · G · H · I · L · N · O · P · Q · R · S · U · W

A

Automatically unfair dismissal

A dismissal the law treats as unfair because of its reason, however short the employee’s service. Under the fire-and-rehire rule, due from January 2027, dismissing Esme for refusing a restricted variation is one. No clause in the Contract can change that. Chapter 9 · see Restricted variation, Fire and rehire

B

Basic Salary

The Contract’s name for Esme’s fixed salary of £90,000 a year, which is £7,500 a month. Other clauses build on it. A payment in lieu and company sick pay pay Basic Salary only, so the bonus and the sign-on payment are left out. Contract 8.1 · Chapter 4 · see Payment in Lieu, Discretionary bonus

Bereavement leave

Time off after the death of someone close. The Employment Rights Act 2025 will make unpaid bereavement leave a right from the first day of a job, expected from April 2027. That date may still move, but clause 27.3 gives whatever the law gives at the time. Contract 27.3 · Chapter 5 · see Statutory sick pay

C

Carry-over

Unused holiday moved into the next year. Clause 13.3 lets Esme carry up to 5 days into the next calendar year, to be taken by 31 March. Any other unused holiday is lost, unless the law says otherwise. Contract 13.3 · Chapter 5

Commencement Date

The Contract defines it as “4 January 2027”, the day Esme starts. Her employment and her continuous employment both begin that day, under clauses 2.1 and 2.2. Her written statement is due by then. Contract 1.1, “Commencement Date” · Chapter 2 · see Continuous employment, Written statement

Confidential Information

Information about Cressby’s business, customers, prices, products or plans “that is not public”. The definition names what matters most: customers and possible customers, the prices and terms they pay, and sales figures and targets. Clause 16.1 keeps it secret during her employment and after it ends. Contract 1.1, “Confidential Information” · Chapter 6 · see Protected disclosure

Continuous employment

Unbroken service with one employer, which the law counts for many rights. Clause 2.2 starts Esme’s on the Commencement Date, and no earlier job counts. She needs 6 months of it before she can claim unfair dismissal. Contract 2.2 · Chapter 3 · see Qualifying period

D

Deduction from pay

Money an employer keeps back from wages. Section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 allows one only if a contract term allows it or the worker agreed in writing beforehand. Esme agrees in clause 25.1, so Cressby can take a sign-on repayment from her pay. Contract 25.1 · Chapter 4 · see Sign-On Payment

Discretionary bonus

A bonus the employer decides each year, with no promise of any sum. Esme’s target is £18,000, but Cressby may award more, less or nothing, as long as it decides honestly and rationally. It pays in March, only if she is still employed and nobody has given notice. Contract 9.1 · Chapter 4 · see Basic Salary

F

Fire and rehire

Dismissing staff who refuse a change to their terms, then offering them their job back on the new terms. The Employment Rights Act 2025 curbs it from January 2027, if the timetable holds. Dismissal for refusing a restricted variation then becomes automatically unfair. Chapter 9 · see Restricted variation, Automatically unfair dismissal

Flexible working request

An employee’s request to change how, when or where she works. Every employee may make one from the first day of a job. A rule letting the employer refuse only where refusing is reasonable is due in autumn 2027, and that date may still move. Chapter 3 · see Hybrid working

G

Garden leave

Keeping an employee at home during her notice, still employed and paid, but away from work, customers and staff. Clause 21.1 lets Cressby do it whichever side gives notice. Time on garden leave just before she leaves shortens each restriction. Contract 21.1 · Chapter 7 · see Restricted Period, Notice period

Gross misconduct

Misconduct so serious that the job cannot go on. Clause 19.2 lets Cressby dismiss Esme at once for it, with no notice and no payment in lieu. If the misconduct is not real, that dismissal is a breach and frees her from the restrictions. Contract 19.2 · Chapter 7 · see Notice period

H

Hybrid working

A pattern of office days and home days. Clause 6.2 gives Esme three days a week at the office and two at home, as her right. Cressby may call her in on other days when the business reasonably needs it. Contract 6.2 · Chapter 3 · see Flexible working request

I

Inducing a breach of contract

A claim against a new employer that encourages a hire to break her contract with her old employer. The old employer can sue both. So clause 3.3 records that Cressby does not ask Esme to break her current employer’s restrictions, and any threat of a claim goes to the partner. Chapter 2

Intellectual Property Rights

The Contract’s term for rights in what people create, such as copyright, patents, designs and trade marks. Under clause 17.1, those in work Esme makes as part of her job belong to Cressby as soon as they arise. Inventions made outside her normal duties stay hers. Contract 17.1 · Chapter 6 · see Confidential Information

L

Legitimate interest

A real business asset that an employer may protect with a restriction. Cressby has three, and clause 23.6 names them: its confidential information, its customers and a stable sales team. Keeping a rival weaker is not one. Chapter 8 · see Restrictive covenant

N

Non-compete

A restriction that stops a former employee working for a rival at all for a time. Clause 23.1 bars Esme for 6 months from a sales or similar role with a Restricted Business in the UK. It is the hardest restriction to defend, so it is drafted narrowly. Contract 23.1 · Chapter 8 · see Restricted Business

Non-dealing clause

A restriction that stops a former employee serving her old customers, even if they approach her. Clause 23.3 covers each Restricted Customer for 12 months, less any garden leave. It fills the gap the non-solicitation clause leaves when a customer calls her first. Contract 23.3 · Chapter 8 · see Non-solicitation clause

Non-poaching clause

A restriction that stops a former employee persuading colleagues to follow her. For 12 months, clause 23.4 bars Esme from trying to take anyone from the sales team she worked with in her last year to a Restricted Business. The attempt alone is a breach. Contract 23.4 · Chapter 8 · see Legitimate interest

Non-solicitation clause

A restriction that stops a former employee trying to win her old customers for a rival. Clause 23.2 covers each Restricted Customer for 12 months, less any garden leave. It does not catch a customer who calls her first, so the non-dealing clause sits beside it. Contract 23.2 · Chapter 8 · see Non-dealing clause, Restricted Customer

Notice period

The warning one side must give the other before the job ends. Esme’s is one week during probation and at least 6 months, in writing, after it. The law’s minimum is shorter, so the Contract’s longer period applies. Contract 19.1 · Chapter 7 · see Garden leave, Payment in Lieu

O

Offer letter

The letter that sets out the main terms of a job before the full contract: the role, the pay, the start date and any conditions. Cressby’s bound both sides once Esme accepted it, on the conditions that clause 3 repeats. The Contract then replaced it. Chapter 2 · see Written statement

Opt-out

A worker’s written agreement that the 48-hour limit on her average week, in the Working Time Regulations 1998, does not apply to her. Esme signs hers separately, in the Schedule, so it is plainly her choice. She may end it on 3 months’ written notice. Contract, Schedule, paragraph 1 · Chapter 3

P

Payment in Lieu

Pay instead of notice, so the job ends at once. Under clause 20.1, Cressby must say in writing that it is using clause 20, and it pays Basic Salary only for the notice period. Done that way, the restrictions survive, and Esme cannot demand one. Contract 20.1 · Chapter 7 · see Basic Salary, Garden leave

Privacy notice

The document telling staff what personal data the employer holds, why and for how long, as Article 13 of the UK GDPR requires. Clause 18.1 points to Cressby’s notice and records that Esme received it. Consent is the wrong basis for staff data, so the Contract asks for none. Contract 18.1 · Chapter 6

Probationary Period

The Contract’s name for Esme’s first 6 months, a trial with one week’s notice either side. A review meeting comes before the end of her fifth month. Clause 4.3 forbids any extension, because the law’s 6-month clock runs on regardless. Contract 4.1 · Chapter 3 · see Qualifying period

Protected disclosure

Whistleblowing that the Employment Rights Act 1996 protects. Section 43J of that Act makes void any term that stops a worker making one. Clause 16.3 says so in the Contract’s own words, so nobody can read the confidentiality clause as a gag. Contract 16.3 · Chapter 6 · see Confidential Information

Q

Qualifying period

The service an employee needs before she can claim unfair dismissal. From 1 January 2027 it is 6 months, under section 108 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. Section 97(2) adds the statutory week of notice when less is given, so Esme’s last safe notice day is 25 June 2027. Chapter 3 · see Continuous employment, Probationary Period

R

Restricted Business

The Contract defines it as “any business that makes, sells, rents or services coffee machines for business customers in the United Kingdom, in competition with the Company”. So it means a real rival to Cressby. A firm selling coffee machines only to homes is outside it. Contract 1.1, “Restricted Business” · Chapter 8 · see Non-compete

Restricted Customer

A customer that the customer restrictions protect. It covers only those Esme dealt with in the 12 months before she leaves, or before garden leave starts if that is earlier. A possible customer counts if she took part in talks with it in the last 6 months of that time. Contract 1.1, “Restricted Customer” · Chapter 8 · see Non-solicitation clause, Non-dealing clause

Restricted Period

The Contract’s name for the time each restriction lasts: 6 months for the non-compete and 12 for the others. Clause 23.5 cuts each one by any garden leave just before she leaves. After 6 months’ garden leave, the customer and team restrictions run for 6 more months. Contract 23.5 · Chapter 8 · see Garden leave

Restricted variation

A change to terms that the fire-and-rehire rule protects. The list covers a cut in pay, the targets pay depends on, pension, hours, less time off, and a new term letting the employer make such changes alone. New duties, a new office and new policies are off it. Chapter 9 · see Fire and rehire, Automatically unfair dismissal

Restrictive covenant

A limit on what an employee may do for a time after leaving. Esme’s Contract calls its four “the restrictions”: the non-compete and the non-solicitation, non-dealing and non-poaching clauses. A court enforces one only if it protects a legitimate interest and goes no further than needed. Contract 23 · Chapter 8 · see Legitimate interest, Severability clause

S

Service agreement

A name some firms give a senior employee’s contract. They usually keep it for directors, whose contracts bring in company law too. Esme is not a director, so hers is a contract of employment. Chapter 1

Severability clause

A clause that keeps the rest working if part cannot be enforced. Clause 23.6 makes each restriction a separate obligation, so if the non-compete fails, the customer and team restrictions still bind Esme. A court may delete words, but it never rewrites a restriction. Contract 23.6 · Chapter 8 · see Restrictive covenant

Sign-On Payment

The £12,000 Cressby pays Esme with her first salary, for the bonus she gives up by leaving her current employer. If she resigns or is dismissed for gross misconduct in her first 6 months, she repays all of it. In the next 6 months, she repays £6,000. Contract 10.1 · Chapter 4 · see Deduction from pay

Statutory sick pay

The sum the law makes an employer pay an employee who is off sick. Since 6 April 2026 it is due from the first day of sickness. Cressby pays full salary for up to 20 working days in any 12 months, statutory sick pay included, then statutory sick pay only. Contract 14.2 · Chapter 5 · see Basic Salary

U

Undertaking

A written promise. After Esme emailed a customer list to her personal address, she deleted it and signed an undertaking that every copy was gone and she would not use the list. Clause 22.2 also makes her confirm the deletion in writing. Contract 22.2 · Chapter 10 · see Confidential Information

W

Written statement

The document setting out the main terms of a job, which every employee must have by her first day. Sections 1 and 7A of the Employment Rights Act 1996 let a contract holding those terms serve as it. Clause 2.1 makes the Contract Esme’s written statement. Contract 2.1 · Chapter 2 · see Offer letter, Commencement Date