What are Work Regulations?

 

The Work Regulations are an internal document governing the employment relationship between the employee and the employer, along with job contract, labor code and other applicable laws. 

Work regulations cover the basic rights and obligations of employees and the employer, and its implementation in many countries is required due to the applicable labor law, e.g. in connection with the employment of a certain number of employees. Nevertheless, having Work Regulations also has practical advantages. Regulating significant parts of general employee obligations, rules and order at the workplace outside the job contract, in separate documentation still binding the employees, allows you, as an employer, to introduce modifications in those terms, without making amendments to multiple job contracts. 

If you are looking for a job contract template, please check our article: Job Contract – Guide & Template. 

 

What is included in the Work Regulations?

 

The basic rights and obligations of employees and the employer relate to such fields as work organization, working time, absences and leaves, awards and benefits, employees’ responsibility, anti-harassment and -discrimination policy. 

The Work Regulations contain provisions and regulations required by applicable labor law and additional organizational elements developed in a given company and unique to it, which are aimed at increasing work efficiency, motivation and employee satisfaction at the work place.  

The key element of Work Regulations is remuneration policy, the establishment of which may also be required by applicable labor law. It is common practice to place remuneration policies in a document separate to Work Regulations. In our Work Regulations Guide & Template we created a single document that covers all the fields above indicated, but you may as well use the provisions regarding remuneration principles, or any other field, to create separate document regulating given area.  

The Work Regulations also indicate the obligations of employees, which may be further specified in separate policies – this may be the case in the case of the obligation to comply with occupational health and safety and fire protection regulations or confidentiality obligation, when employees have access to particularly important content or trade secrets while performing their work. 

In addition to detailed rules regarding the acquisition of the right to leave and the benefit system in your company, the Work Regulations also contain particularly important principles of the anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policy. Those principles impose on employees the obligation of performing work in professional manner and with due respect towards their coworkers, as well as the obligation on the employer, to treat each employee equally, to counteract any forms of discrimination, harassment and mobbing and, if appropriate, to punish employees for breach of the Work Regulation provisions in this regard. 

 

How to correctly establish Work Regulations?

 

In order for the Work Regulations to be binding for employees, they must be properly communicated to them. 

As the Work Regulations essentially constitute an agreement between the employer and employees, it is crucial that its provisions were clear and accepted by both sides – to achieve this goal, after hiring an employee and familiarizing him with the documentation, you can receive from the employee a written statement that he has read, he accepts and obliges to comply with the content of the Work Regulations. A template of such written statement has been included as Appendix No. 1 to our Work Regulations Template, which you can find below. 

You should also know that under many jurisdictions, labor law requires the employer to consult on the introduction and amendment of the Work Regulations, with the trade union organization representing employees, if there is one in the given workplace. For full compliance with the applicable law, you should find out what obligations apply to you as an employer, in your jurisdiction. 

 

 

Work Regulations – template

Please find our editable Work Regulations template attached below. You can download it and apply, as long as it fits your needs. We supplemented the document with appropriate commentaries to dispel doubts and indicate places that need your editing. Once you fill all the blanks “…” and choose satisfying provisions that are suitable for your hiring process, your documentation is complete.  

The templates we provide you with are prepared requirements of high standard labor law, but every time you conclude a Job Contract you should make sure it includes all the employment terms required under your particular jurisdiction.