Staff terms & conditions

The client operated four separate geographical sites within its wider group structure. Employees at each of the sites were employed under its own terms and conditions of employment. Furthermore, each site had its own policies and procedures in place. As a result of this, there was disparity across the organisation and it became apparent that in order to move the business forward there needed to be consistency of terms across the whole group.

Employment specialists at RWK Goodman undertook a comparison exercise to analyse the existing contractual terms in each part of the business. Upon closer inspection it became clear that because some employees had particularly favourable terms, it would not be possible to harmonise all employees’ terms and conditions with immediate effect. Instead, a new standardised set of terms and conditions were prepared and it was agreed that this would be issued to all new starters. At the same time, a new handbook was prepared in order to harmonise working practices across the organisation and this was rolled out with success to all employees.

Sofia McClymont comments “the client organisation had grown quickly and it had become unmanageable to have four different sets of terms and conditions within the business. Although the review did involve a significant amount of management time, it was vital work in the sense that there is now consistency of terms across the group which is a much more efficient way of working for the future."