Legal Responses to the Standard Form Contract of Employment

Having suggested that the advent of standard form contracts of employment is a neglected aspect of employment law, an assessment is made of two of the main legal responses to the potential unfairness of terms, namely implied terms and the application of section 3 the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977. The Law Commission's proposed legislative reform is also examined. It is concluded that only by combining terms implied by the law with the statutory protection of reasonable expectations of employees will the law succeed in devising an adequate technique for rebalancing contracts of employment.