Questions about your employee benefit?

Employment law - missing contract & employee sickness query?

• 2 questions in 1 here, sorry! I've worked for my company for over 4 years. About 1 1/2 - 2 years ago I was advised that HR had lost a copy of my contract and asked me for my copy for their records. I too have lost my contract when I moved house, so technically I do not have an employment contract. Since this time my job role and job title has changed. I had an employee review in June and asked my manager (who is the GM) to sort out the missing contract issue. To this date nothing has been done. I'm wondering where I stand with regards to my rights and my company's rights, ie. can they just change what they pay me, can I leave without working my notice etc. or does the fact that I have worked the same hours for the same pay for 4 years mean anything legally? I'm also wondering if my company are deliberately ignoring me for a reason, ie. is it in their benefit for me not to have a contract? Next - I was signed off for 3 weeks with anxiety and depression a year ago thanks to a colleague who was a pain that I couldnt deal with anymore. In my back to work interview I gave my manager proof of all of the issues I had with said colleague. My manager said he was aware of the issues and that it would take time to get the individual to change his ways but we would work on it. I never saw evidence of anything changing, he's still a total pain, although i'm coping so far. In my employment review, my manager asked how I was coping with said individual, I said I was doing OK but he hadn't changed one bit. My manager then told me I was (quote) 'probably hyper-sensitive where this person was concerned and that I was probably making more of his attitude towards me than was really true'. I didn't have any follow up interviews after my sickness period and no contact from HR to see if I was coping OK, basically i've been left to get on with it. Is this the same for any company or are they being irresponsible? Also, is my manager in the wrong for the way he handled this? He has a natty trick of turning gripes around on his employees, putting the ball back in their court, so to speak, and I think he's hoping that this will somehow go away! Any advice will be much appreciated :-)

• Answer:

  First of all, you do have a contrac t. The fact that you turn up for work, do the work and are paid constitutes a contract in UK law. In the absence of written terms and conditions of employment (this document which has gone missing ), the statutory rules apply, so your rights in terms of leave, sick leave, notice period, etc are still protected.Probably, if push came to shove you could rely on the written terms of other employes, but you do need to push them to give you this document. Its an offence not to do so within 8 weeks of starting. As to your other issue, your manager isnt being very helpful. But its a year since you were off, so you seem to be coping. You can always keep brining this person up in your supervisions - often you will find that they are annoying other people as well.