Browse frequently asked questions and answers on key HR issues. Navigate by topic or key word search. View latest additions or suggest a question to the XpertHR editorial team.


To what extent are the terms of a contract binding?

What are incorporated terms and are they legally binding?

What are the risks of offering discretionary terms?

When are implied terms important?

Can an employer require its employees to give more notice to terminate their contracts than it is required to give?

If an employee receives a payment in lieu of notice, will his or her annual leave entitlement accrue up to the termination date, or the end of the notice period?

Is an employer liable for offensive and/or potentially discriminatory material or comments posted on its intranet bulletin board?

What contractual terms will exist between an employer and its employees with regard to health and safety?

Can an employer require employees to live within a certain distance of the workplace?


Where an employer has provided employees with a Christmas hamper in previous years is it under any obligation to continue this practice?

If employees have regularly been provided with a hamper for several years, they could argue that provision of the hamper has become a contractual right as a result of custom and practice. This could be the case in particular if employees have come to expect to receive a hamper, and no previous indication has been given by the employer that its continued provision is not guaranteed.

Before deciding not to provide hampers, the employer should explain to its staff why it feels that it is unable to do so. Alternatively the employer might consider providing a smaller, and less expensive, hamper, having first explained to employees why this type of cutback has become necessary.

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Where an employee is put on garden leave, is the employer entitled to ask the employee to return his or her company car and mobile phone?

Where the transferor paid a particular mileage rate to transferred employees, is the transferee obliged to continue to pay them at this rate even though it is higher than its normal rate?

If an employer's business is closed because of, for example, flooding, is it obliged to pay its employees?

Where an employee who lives in employer-provided accommodation becomes pregnant must the employer permit her to continue to live there after the birth?

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