Employment contract for a remote worker

A remote employee works somewhere the employer cannot see, on equipment the employer may or may not own, in hours the employer cannot observe, and sometimes in a country the employer did not agree to. The contract has to state the place of work and the employer's right to require attendance, allocate the health and safety obligations that follow the employee home, deal with equipment, expenses, data and monitoring, set the hours and availability the role needs, and stop the employee relocating abroad without agreement. I draft that contract for the employer for a fixed fee of £595, delivered in five working days, as a template for remote roles.

Who this is for

Employers in England and Wales with staff who work from home or from locations of their own choosing, from a company that has never had an office to a business converting roles to remote.

What matters in a remote worker's contract

The place of work and the employer's right to require attendance

The written particulars under section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 must state the place of work or say that the employee may work at various places, and the contract should state the employee's home as the normal place of work, require the employee to tell the employer of any change of address, and reserve the employer's right to require attendance at its premises or elsewhere for stated purposes (meetings, training, periods of office working) on reasonable notice, with travel expenses for attendance that is not the employee's normal commute; a contract that is silent on attendance leaves the employer with no right to call the employee in.

Health and safety at a workplace the employer does not control

The employer's duties under section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 extend to employees working at home, and the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 require an assessment of the employee's workstation and the provision of eye tests, so the contract should require the employee to complete the employer's home working assessment, to work from a suitable workstation, to report hazards and accidents, and to allow the employer to inspect the workspace by arrangement where it reasonably requires, with the employer providing the information and equipment the assessment identifies; the employee's home insurance and mortgage or tenancy conditions are the employee's to check, and the contract should say so.

Equipment, expenses and the costs of working at home

The contract should state what the employer provides (a laptop, a phone, a screen, a chair where the assessment requires it), that it remains the employer's property and must be returned, the employee's obligations for its care and security, what the employee provides (broadband, a workspace), and the expenses the employer reimburses or the allowance it pays, within the tax rules the accountants confirm; the employee's use of their own device for work should be governed by the data security terms or prohibited.

Data security, confidentiality and monitoring

The contract should require the employee to follow the employer's information security policies (encryption, secure connections, locked screens, no printing of confidential documents at home, no family use of work devices), to keep confidential information confidential in a household the employer cannot see, and to comply with the UK GDPR in handling personal data, and should state what monitoring the employer carries out (device management, activity on the employer's systems) and the lawful basis and the privacy notice that cover it, because monitoring remote staff without telling them is a data protection breach as well as a grievance.

Hours, availability and the right to switch off

The contract should state the hours and whether they are fixed or flexible, the core hours in which the employee must be available, the response times the role needs, the record-keeping the employer requires for working time under the Working Time Regulations 1998, rest breaks, and the employer's expectations about availability outside hours, which should be none unless the role is paid for it; there is no statutory right to disconnect in England and Wales, but an employer that expects constant availability from remote staff accumulates working time claims and departures, and the contract should set the expectation rather than leave it to practice.

Working abroad and the problems it creates

The contract should require the employee to work from the UK and to obtain the employer's written consent before working from another country for more than a stated short period, because an employee working abroad can create a tax presence for the employer, trigger local employment and social security law, breach immigration rules, and take the employer's data outside the UK under the UK GDPR; the employer may consent for short periods on conditions, and the contract should say that consent may be withheld and that the employee bears the consequences of working abroad without it. The Employment Rights Act 1996 continues to apply to an employee ordinarily working in Great Britain.

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

Can we require a remote employee to come into the office?

If the contract reserves the right to require attendance for stated purposes on reasonable notice, yes. A contract that names the home as the place of work and says nothing more gives the employer no such right.

Are we responsible for health and safety in an employee's home?

For the work they do there, yes: the duties extend to home working, and the display screen regulations require a workstation assessment. The contract requires the assessment and the employee's cooperation.

An employee has moved to Spain and is working from there. Is that a problem?

Potentially a serious one, for the employer's tax position, Spanish employment and social security law, immigration and data protection. The contract requires consent before working abroad and lets the employer refuse it.

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 a hybrid worker
• Consultancy agreement for work outside the UK

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.