<span style="color: green;">Legal Consideration: Signatures</span>

As part of this project we explored whether it would be possible for someone to sign this document on behalf of Livable Planet as a 'community' rather than as the 'legal employer'. As a general rule, a person can only sign on behalf of 'someone' else if they have the formal authority to do this (for example a power of attorney). Therefore, although it could be a nice symbolic gesture for there to be an additional signature block, this would not translate well from a legal perspective.

<span style="color: green;">Legal Consideration: Collective Agreements</span>

For context, these usualy relate to an employer's agreements with employees’ representatives (from trade unions or staff associations).

<span style="color: green;">Legal Consideration: Goodbye Fund</span>

References to the Goodbye Fund has been included in the purple box as it is not feasible for the Goodbye Fund to be a legally binding obligation (as it is dependent on the wider financial health of the organisation). However, where statutory redundancy pay is applicable, the Goodbye Fund (which also serves the function of statutory redundancy pay) will always meet statutory levels as a minimum.

<span style="color: green;">Legal Consideration: Confidential Information</span>

This clause has been included as most contracts that Livable Planet has signed (e.g. with funders) will include a confidentiality clause, and therefore contractually Livable Planet has contractually promised such organisations that their staff will keep confidential information confidential. There may be scenarios where certain information is not confidential and/or no confidentiality obligation exists - the 'written permission' caveat has been added to give Livable Planet and employees a process to ensure such information can be shared with others.

<span style="color: green;">Legal Consideration: Data and Privacy</span>

It is a legal requirement for the employer to have the consent of employees to use their data. Therefore a new joiner must be given their privacy notice as part of onboarding - this is on top of any privacy notice provided as part of the recruitment process.

<span style="color: green;">Legal Consideration: Training Requirements</span>

If training is "critical" to the role (i.e. it would be a condition of employment) this would legally have to be included in the contract, along with whether the organisation will pay for the training or if the employee must fund it themselves. In this scenario, the role does not require such training.

<span style="color: green;">Legal Consideration: Introduction</span>

The language under this clause may appear to contradict the fact that Livable Planet operates an unlimited holiday policy. This language is needed because under English law, a leaver can be entitled to pay that is calculated by reference to any unused holiday, and therefore it needs to be clear that such payment is not calculated based on a whole year of 'unlimited' holiday leave.

<span style="color: green;">Legal Consideration: Base Salary</span>

The Base Salary has been separate from Livable Planet's pay formula, which includes components that could lead to additional pay. This has been split out as these additional components are dependent on the financial health of Livable Planet and therefore cannot be legally binding (hence why this is only referred to in the non-contractual text box).

<span style="color: green;">Legal Consideration: Overtime Measures</span>

This language is included because the company runs an unlimited holiday policy - see clause 9 for further details.

<span style="color: green;">Legal Consideration: Working Abroad</span>

Unfortunately, the disparate tax and legal systems of the world’s countries are yet to recognise, and facilitate, a ‘global citizen employee’ and there can be significant consequences for employer and personally for the employee in relation to unmanaged international remote working.

<span style="color: green;">Legal Consideration: Policies</span>

It is important to distinguish what wording in the document is intended to be legally binding. One way we have done this is to make it clear that the general rule is that policies are not part of the contract.

<span style="color: green;">Legal Consideration: Support Contact</span>

Whilst an organisation may intentionally not have a centralised 'human resources' department, it is important both from a legal and cultural perspective to ensure that employees feel able to raise any concerns or issues, and that they have people they feel able to talk to beyond those they work with. This is to ensure any issues can be understand and resolved as early as possible from a cultural perspective, but also to minimise people leaving the organisation on bad terms.

<span style="color: green;">Legal Consideration: Non-Discrimination</span>

It is important to ensure any language relating to reviews etc. takes into account rules in relation to discrimination. This also applies to the processes the employer has in place from recruitment onwards.

<span style="color: green;">Legal Consideration: Right to Work</span>

As an employer in England, the company is legally required to ensure all staff are entitled to work in the UK. This legal requirement is still true even when the company disagrees with this from a policy perspective.

<span style="color: green;">Legal Consideration: What is part of the contract</span>

It is important to distinguish what wording in the document is intended to be legally binding vs conversational / contextual. One way we have done this is to list out which elements of the document form the contract - note that this list does not include the 'about' page at the front of the contract.

<span style="color: green;">Legal Consideration: Role Cards</span>

Note that the role cards from part of each individual's contract.The process for changing role cards is covered in the linked Roles Board resource.

<span style="color: green;">Legal Consideration: Permanent Contract</span>

This contract is for a permanent role. It does not need to explicitly state contract as permanent as this is implied unless stated otherwise.

<span style="color: green;">Legal Consideration: Details of Employment</span>

We have included a cover page with key employment details. This is for three reasons: 1. Usability for the company - keeping most of the factual information on the front cover means that it is quicker for the company to be able to tailor contracts for new joiners, and prevents legacy wording from previous contracts accidentially being included in other people's contracts. This page also creates a clean 'definitions' page, which means that instead of having to tailor wording throughout the contract, the contract can cross refer to 'the start date' etc, saving time and also reduces the risk of legacy text. 2. Usability for the new joiner - instead of having to scan-read a whole contract, the key information relating to their job can be found easily near the front of the document. 3. There are certain information that legally must be provided to the employee within certain time periods. Having the information in this format makes it less likely that such information won't be included. See our Reimaging Contract Terms table for further details.

<span style="color: green;">Legal Consideration: Details are to be read with Terms</span>

As stated in the contract, the "overall employment contract is made up of your Details of Employment, the Role Card(s) you hold from time to time and these Employment Terms." This means that these Details of Employment have to be read as an integral part of the whole contract, and not on their own.

<span style="color: green;">Legal Consideration: Non-contractual Explanations</span>

It is important to distinguish what wording in the document is intended to be legally binding vs conversational / contextual. One way we have done this is to make it visually clear that all language in the purple boxes 'do not form part of the contract'.

How to use these annotations

Employment contracts, including this example, are ideally not be not one-size-fits-all, but designed to respond to a specific organisational, legal, and design context. We have created an annotated version of this example contract to explain our thought processes and reasons for why we have made the contract’s strategic decisions in this way.

We strongly recommend you read this version of the contract with annotations first, before using the contract as a starting point for your own, to understand the context of how that contract was shaped, and reflect on how these constraints or considerations may or may not apply to your own circumstances.

We have tagged these annotations under the key categories below:

• <span style="color: blue;">Policy Considerations: how we have considered the organisation’s policy, i.e. how its members decide to work together and run their organisation. </span>
• <span style="color: green;">Legal Considerations: how we have considered the legal frameworks in creating the contract, including how employment law, contract law, etc., has shaped how the contract works.</span>
• <span style="color: red;">Design Considerations: how we have considered communications design questions, including information hierarchy, user experience, and how to ensure the nature of the agreement is communicated clearly.</span>

We also invite you to look at our Reimagining Contract Terms table for our reflections on the typical terms that form an employment contract, and how they can be reimagined beyond their conventional approaches.

<span style="color: red;">Design Consideration: Contractually-defined Terms</span>

This helps with the interpretation of the contract, by distinguishing terms which are to be interpreted under their specific contractual definitions.

How to use these annotations

Employment contracts, including this example, are ideally not be not one-size-fits-all, but designed to respond to a specific organisational, legal, and design context. We have created an annotated version of this example contract to explain our thought processes and reasons for why we have made the contract’s strategic decisions in this way.

We strongly recommend you read this version of the contract with annotations first, before using the contract as a starting point for your own, to understand the context of how that contract was shaped, and reflect on how these constraints or considerations may or may not apply to your own circumstances.

We have tagged these annotations under the key categories below:

• <span style="color: blue;">Policy Considerations: how we have considered the organisation’s policy, i.e. how its members decide to work together and run their organisation. </span>
• <span style="color: green;">Legal Considerations: how we have considered the legal frameworks in creating the contract, including how employment law, contract law, etc., has shaped how the contract works.</span>
• <span style="color: red;">Design Considerations: how we have considered communications design questions, including information hierarchy, user experience, and how to ensure the nature of the agreement is communicated clearly.</span>

We also invite you to look at our Reimagining Contract Terms table for our reflections on the typical terms that form an employment contract, and how they can be reimagined beyond their conventional approaches.

We want to ensure any obligation on the employee is reciprocal and mutual on the employer, to remove power dynamics.

The law entitles the employee to minimum notice periods.

UK immigration law requires us to do this. This is also the case when it comes to this clause