An employment contract is an official document stating the terms of an employer-employee relationship. Employment agreement covers matters about salary or wages, paid vacations, sick leaves, hours of work, etc. 

A written employment contract is not a legal obligation, nor do you have to sign a contract with every employee that works under you. However, there are certain cases where employment contracts may seem necessary. If your employee or employer has conducted a breach of the agreement, you can seek assistance from Southport employment discrimination lawyers. 

Pros of written employment contracts:

• Length of employment. 

An employment agreement can decide the length of time that you will work for the company or business. The contract may contain the start and end date of your employment. It may also consist of the hours of work per day, week, and month. This prevents the employer from terminating or the employee from resigning all of a sudden (unless there is a strong reason).

• Confidentiality clauses. 

Employment contracts make sense when the employer does not want to disclose the trade secrets of the company. Upon hiring employees, the employer has to make them learn and understand the trade secrets for them to work efficiently. But there is always a risk of information leakage. Signing a contract that promises confidentiality provides a sense of protection. 

• Grounds of termination. 

Employment contracts can be helpful to have a sense of control over your employee in terms of firing them. An employer can state the grounds of termination to make it easier to fire employees when they conduct a breach. 

• Promotion

The employment contract may contain when and on what terms the employee can be promoted and to which post. It may also contain information about when the employee can get a bonus.

Cons of written employment contracts

• Renegotiation.

Employment contracts limit flexibility. This poses a problem if you do not like the terms of the contract later. If one or both parties believe that the terms of employment should change, they have to work together to figure out negotiation and edit the contract. However, there is no guarantee that one party will agree to the other party about the changes. 

• Covenant of good faith and fair dealing. 

When two parties sign an employment contract, they agree to treat each other with good faith and fair dealing. This means that you must act reasonably, according to the terms of the contract. If one party acts in an unjust way with the other party, they are conducting a breach of duty of care and are legally violating the terms of the contract.