Whether it’s a part-time job or a full time graduate job it is likely that you’ll be required to sign a contract of employment. This spells out your responsibilities to the organisation (i.e. hours of work, turning up on time, what you are required to do), together with the organisation’s responsibilities to you (i.e. wage/salary, holiday entitlement, sickness, employee benefits etc).
You need to make sure you read, and most importantly UNDERSTAND, the contract before you sign it as it will be legally binding. Therefore you may be locked in to work for the company for 3 months before you can resign etc so it’s a MUST that you take everything into consideration.
The main things to check for are:
- Holiday entitlement
- Wage/Salary is correct and as agreed
- Sickness pay
- The hours you are required to work
Most UK universities will have a student advice centre which will be happy to read over contracts for you and can assist with your negotiation if you’re not happy with something in the contract. We think these services are great and would strongly recommend that you use these where available - they’re FREE after all so what have you got to lose!
