Contract of employment: what must be in writing in Ireland

Most people searching "contract of employment ireland" want one of two things: to know what should be in the document they were handed, or to know where they stand because they were never handed one at all. This guide answers both. It covers what the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994 requires, the two deadlines, what happens when the statement is late or missing, and how terms can and cannot be changed once you are working.

You have a contract even if nothing was written down

A contract of employment is the agreement between you and your employer that you will work and they will pay you. It exists from the moment you both agree to that, whether in a signed document, an email, a phone call or a handshake. "No contract of employment" almost always means "no written contract", and that is a different problem.

What the law actually requires in writing is a statement of your terms. The Act puts that duty on the employer, not on you. If you never received one, the employer may be in breach of the Act, but your rights to the minimum wage, rest breaks, annual leave, sick pay, notice and the rest do not depend on the paperwork. Those come from the Acts themselves.

Where there is no written statement, the terms are whatever was agreed orally, plus what can be shown from how you have been treated (your payslips, your roster, the hours you actually work) and what the statutory floor requires.

The core terms: within 5 days

Since the 2018 Act and the 2022 Regulations, the employer must give you a written statement of the core terms within 5 days of your first day. The core terms are:

• the full names of the employer and the employee
• the employer's address
• the date your employment started
• if the job is temporary, how long it is expected to last; if it is fixed-term, the end date
• the rate of pay or the method of calculating it, and the pay reference period
• the hours the employer reasonably expects you to work in a normal working day and week
• the duration and conditions of any probationary period
• the place of work, or a statement that you work at various places
• your job title, grade, or a brief description of the work

The 5-day statement must be signed and dated by the employer. Many employers combine it with the full statement and hand you one document on or before your first day, which satisfies both deadlines at once.

The rest of the statement: within 1 month

The remaining items must be given to you in writing within 1 month of starting:

• how often you are paid (weekly, fortnightly, monthly)
• overtime terms, if any
• paid leave, including annual leave and public holidays
• sick pay and sick leave terms
• pension and pension scheme terms
• the notice each side must give, or how it is worked out
• any collective agreement that affects your terms
• any training entitlement the employer provides
• if your work pattern is unpredictable: the reference hours and days within which you may be asked to work, and the minimum notice of a shift
• if you are an agency worker: the identity of the hirer
• the social insurance institution that receives your PRSI contributions (the Department of Social Protection)

Some of these can be covered by pointing you to another document, such as a staff handbook or a collective agreement, as long as that document is reasonably accessible to you. The pay, hours and probation items cannot be handled that way: they must be in the statement itself.

If you want to check what you were given against the full list, the contract checker walks through each item and tells you which deadline applies.

What the statement is not

The statement is evidence of your terms, not the whole contract. Terms can also come from:

• The Acts. Minimum wage, working time, annual leave, public holidays, sick pay, minimum notice and the equality Acts apply whatever the contract says, and a contract term that gives you less than the statutory floor does not bind you. See working hours and breaks and annual leave entitlement for the floors that matter most.
• The handbook. Policies on grievance, discipline, sick leave reporting, expenses and the like are often incorporated into the contract by a line in the statement. If they are, they bind both sides. If the handbook says it is "for guidance only", it may not be contractual, though the WRC still expects the employer to follow its own procedures.
• Custom and practice. Something done consistently over a long period, that both sides treated as binding, can become an implied term: a Christmas bonus paid every year without fail, a particular shift pattern, an enhanced redundancy package applied every time. Whether a practice has reached that point is a question of fact and is argued case by case.
• Collective agreements. If a union agreement is incorporated into your contract, its terms are yours. Sector-wide orders in construction, security, cleaning and childcare also set terms above the minimum wage; see the chapter on your sector for the relevant order.

Fixed-term, part-time and variable-hours contracts

A fixed-term contract must say in the 5-day statement when it ends. If you are kept on across successive fixed terms, continuous service beyond 4 years converts the arrangement into a contract of indefinite duration unless the employer has objective grounds for a further fixed term. The detail, including what happens when a fixed term is not renewed, is in fixed-term contract not renewed.

A contract with no fixed hours needs particular attention. Zero-hours contracts have been banned since the 2018 Act except for genuinely casual work, emergency cover and short-term relief, and the 5-day statement must set out the hours the employer reasonably expects you to work. Zero-hours and banded hours contracts explains the ban, the minimum payment when you are sent home, and how to be placed in a band of hours after 12 months.

Part-time and agency workers get the same statement as everyone else, with the agency statement also naming the hirer. Part-time and agency workers' rights covers the equal treatment rules.

Probation in the statement

The duration and conditions of any probationary period are a core term, so they must be in the 5-day statement. Since the 2022 Regulations, probation in the private sector may not run beyond 6 months, or 12 months only exceptionally. A statement that sets a longer probation, or one that reserves the right to extend it indefinitely, may not comply. Probation period in Ireland covers the cap, extensions and your rights during probation.

Changing your terms

Once agreed, a term of the contract can usually be changed only with your agreement. The exceptions are where the contract itself allows a change (a mobility clause, a clause allowing the employer to vary your hours within a stated range) or where a statutory change applies to everyone.

Two points follow from that. First, if the employer announces a change to your pay, hours, place of work or duties and you carry on working without objecting, you may be treated over time as having accepted it. Objecting in writing, promptly, keeps the question open. The letter builder has a "confirm in writing" letter for exactly this. Second, the Act separately requires the employer to notify you in writing of any change to the particulars in the statement, within 1 month of the change taking effect. A change imposed without agreement may also be a deduction from wages if it reduces your pay, which has its own route under the Payment of Wages Act 1991; see payslips and unlawful deductions.

A fundamental change pushed through without agreement, such as a large pay cut or a move to a distant site with no mobility clause, is the kind of conduct that constructive dismissal claims are built on. That is a serious step with the burden on you, so read constructive dismissal before treating it as an option.

If you were never given a statement

The steps most people take are these.

1. Ask in writing. A short email asking for your written statement under the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994 is enough. Keep a copy. Many employers produce the document within days once asked.
2. Gather your own evidence of the terms. Payslips, rosters, the job advertisement, the offer email, texts about hours and pay. If a dispute arises later, these are what the terms will be reconstructed from.
3. Complain to the WRC if nothing comes. A complaint under the 1994 Act can be made to the Workplace Relations Commission on the online form, with no fee, within 6 months of the contravention. Because the duty to give the statement continues for as long as you are employed without one, the clock is generally not a problem while you are still in the job, but it is tighter once you have left. See how to make a WRC complaint and the WRC time limit.

Where the WRC finds that no statement was given, or that the one given was incomplete, it can order the employer to give it and can award compensation of up to 4 weeks' remuneration. That maximum is taken from the WRC's own guidance and law-firm commentary and is to be verified against the Act as amended; what adjudicators actually award in practice is often less than the ceiling. The WRC awards register shows the pattern across published decisions.

A statement complaint is often made alongside something else, for example a pay or working time complaint, because the absence of a statement tends to come to light when a dispute about hours or pay arises.

Signing and keeping the document

You are entitled to a copy of the statement. The employer must keep a copy for the duration of your employment and for a year after it ends. Read it before signing, note anything that differs from what was agreed at interview, and raise it in writing before you sign if you can. Signing does not prevent you later relying on the statutory floors, because a term below the floor is not enforceable against you, but it does make it harder to argue that an above-floor promise was made orally and left out.

Keep your copy somewhere outside the employer's systems. Access to a work email account usually ends on the day you leave.

Where this leaves you

Whether you have a 30-page contract or nothing at all, the question is the same: does what you were given contain every item the Act requires, within the deadlines? The contract checker takes you through the statutory list item by item, flags what is missing, and shows whether the 5-day or the 1-month deadline applies to each gap. If the answer is that terms are missing or were never given, the WRC route is open, with no fee, and the WRC overview explains what to expect. Acronyms used here are in the glossary.