Employment contract for a part-time employee

A part-time employee has every right a full-time employee has, scaled to their hours, and a contract that treats part-time work as something less than a job is where the claims start. The contract has to fix the hours and the pattern, calculate pay, holiday and benefits pro rata, avoid treating the employee less favourably than full-time colleagues, provide a route for changing the hours, and deal with the arithmetic of overtime and bank holidays that catches employers out. I draft that contract for the employer for a fixed fee of £595, delivered in five working days, as a template for the grade.

Who this is for

Employers in England and Wales taking on part-time staff, converting a full-time role to part-time, or wanting a template that handles part-time work correctly across the business.

What matters in a part-time employee's contract

Hours, days and the pattern that is agreed

The contract should state the hours a week, the days and the start and finish times, whether the pattern is fixed or may be varied and on what notice, and whether the employee may be asked to work additional hours and must agree to do so, because the written particulars under section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 must say whether hours and days are variable and how; a pattern the employer treats as flexible and the employee treats as fixed is the first dispute, and the contract should say which it is.

Pro rata pay, holiday and benefits

Pay should be stated as an annual salary pro rata to full-time hours or as an hourly rate at or above the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 rate, holiday as the statutory minimum under the Working Time Regulations 1998 pro rata (expressed in hours for staff who work different lengths of day, so that a day off is a day's hours rather than a full-timer's day), and benefits (pension under the Pensions Act 2008, sick pay, bonus, private medical) on the same basis as full-time staff scaled to hours; the contract should state the full-time equivalent so that the pro rata calculation is visible.

No less favourable treatment than full-time staff

Regulation 5 of the Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000 entitles a part-time worker not to be treated less favourably than a comparable full-time worker in their contractual terms or by being subjected to any detriment, unless the treatment is objectively justified, and the contract should be drafted so that every term is the full-time term pro rata: no exclusion from bonus, training, promotion or benefits because of hours, and overtime rates applied once the part-timer exceeds full-time hours rather than their own; a part-time contract on different terms from the full-time one needs a reason for each difference.

Changing the hours and the flexible working route

The contract should say how hours are changed: by agreement in writing, with the employer's reasonable business needs and the employee's request considered, and should refer to the statutory right to request flexible working under section 80F of the Employment Rights Act 1996, which every employee has from the first day, which allows two requests in a year, and which the employer must handle reasonably and decide within the statutory period on one of the permitted grounds; an employer who wants to increase a part-timer's hours cannot impose it, and the contract should provide the consultation route rather than a unilateral variation clause that will not survive challenge.

Overtime, bank holidays and the sums that go wrong

The contract should say that additional hours up to full-time hours are paid at the normal rate and overtime rates apply only beyond them, how bank holidays are handled (a pro rata entitlement in hours regardless of which days the employee works, so that an employee who never works Mondays is not short-changed and one who always does is not over-rewarded), and how holiday pay for an employee with variable hours is calculated under the Working Time Regulations 1998 as amended, including the rolled-up holiday pay the amendments allow for irregular hours workers where the employer chooses it; the arithmetic is where part-time contracts produce claims, and the contract should set the method.

The particulars, notice and the rest of the contract

The contract supplies the written particulars section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 requires on day one, states probation and notice with the statutory minimum under section 86 as the floor, contains confidentiality, intellectual property under section 11 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, deductions agreed under section 13 of the 1996 Act, the disciplinary and grievance procedures and a reference to the handbook, with restrictive covenants only where the role justifies them; the Employment Rights Act 2025 changes the early months of employment on a timetable the regulations set, and the probation clause is drafted with it in mind.

What it costs

Employment contract, £595. One template you can reuse for a grade of staff. Five working days.

Staff handbook and core policies, £995. Five working days.

Buying online forms the engagement on payment. The scope is what the employment contracts and handbooks page describes, you accept the Terms of Service at checkout, and I email you within four working hours to get started. If you would rather ask something first, email me.

What you get

• A bespoke contract drafted for how you employ people
• Restrictive covenants drafted at a scope a court will uphold
• Confidentiality and intellectual property provisions that put ownership where it belongs
• The statutory particulars, so the document does the job section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 requires it to do
• Flexibility clauses where you genuinely need them, drafted to survive challenge
• Core policies: disciplinary, grievance, sickness absence, equal opportunities, data protection and, increasingly, AI use
• One round of amendments

What is not included

• Acting for employees
• Employment tribunal representation
• Payroll, pensions auto-enrolment and tax
• Immigration and sponsor licence work
• Day to day HR handling, disciplinaries, grievances and redundancy processes

Questions I am often asked

Our part-timer never works Mondays. Do they get bank holidays?

A pro rata share of them, in hours, whichever days they work. The contract calculates the entitlement that way so that neither the employee nor the business loses out on the arithmetic.

Can we require a part-time employee to increase their hours?

Not by imposing it. Hours are changed by agreement, and the contract provides the consultation route. An employee can also request a change under the flexible working right, which the employer must consider properly.

Do part-time staff get the same bonus and benefits?

Pro rata to hours, yes, unless a difference can be objectively justified. The contract applies every full-time term scaled to hours, which is what the regulations require.

Related guidance and services

• Employment contracts and handbooks, £595, the service this page describes
• Consultancy and contractor agreements, £595
• Settlement agreements for employers, £795
• Employment contract for your first employee
• Employment contract for a hybrid worker

This page is general guidance for businesses in England and Wales, not advice on your own circumstances. Last reviewed: October 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.