Restaurant staff handbook: what UK employment law requires

Hospitality has high turnover, irregular hours and a young workforce — exactly the conditions where employment disputes arise, and exactly why the paperwork matters. A good staff handbook isn't corporate box-ticking; it's the document that protects you when a disciplinary, a grievance or a tribunal claim lands. This guide covers what UK employment law actually requires.

The day-one right: a written statement of particulars

Since 6 April 2020, every employee and worker has a day-one right to a written statement of employment particulars under section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. It has to be given at the start of employment and cover, among other things:

• pay and when it's paid;
• hours and days of work;
• holiday entitlement (the statutory minimum is 5.6 weeks);
• place of work and probation period;
• notice periods on both sides;
• sick pay and any other benefits;
• references to your disciplinary and grievance procedures.

Disciplinary and grievance: the ACAS Code

You need written disciplinary and grievance procedures, and they should follow the ACAS Code of Practice. The Code isn't direct law, but it carries weight: a tribunal can adjust a compensation award by up to 25% where an employer unreasonably fails to follow it. A fair process generally means investigation, written notification, a hearing the employee can be accompanied at, a written decision, and the right to appeal — handled by different managers where practicable. There's no headcount exemption: the Code applies even to the smallest team.

Anti-harassment and equal opportunities

Your handbook should include an equal-opportunities and anti-harassment policy reflecting the Equality Act 2010 and the Worker Protection Act 2023, which since 26 October 2024 places a positive duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their staff. In a customer-facing, late-night sector this is a live risk, not a formality — and the duty is proactive, not just reactive.

The newer one people miss: a written tipping policy

The Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023, in force from 1 October 2024, requires employers to pass on tips, gratuities and service charges to workers in full and fairly, and to keep a written tipping policy where tips are paid more than occasionally. This is squarely a hospitality law and is easy to overlook in an older handbook.

Making sure the team has actually read it

A handbook only protects you if staff have genuinely received and understood it — and can be shown to have done so. "It was in the shared drive" isn't the same as a record that a named employee acknowledged the current version. That acknowledgement loop is where frunt helps.

frunt turns your handbook and HR policies into induction the team completes on their phones, and keeps a dated, versioned record of who's acknowledged the current version — so when a policy changes, you can show the team was brought up to date. Get started with frunt, or book a walkthrough.