Employment

Employment law in the UK changed dramatically in 2025. These commands help you check whether employment contracts comply with the latest legislation -- including unfair dismissal from day one, flexible working rights, and the new zero-hours protections.

Three commands for employment contracts, IR35 determinations, and freelancer contract reviews.

Plate I — the broadsheet rebrand.

Plate I.a — the original, kept for reference.

/legal employment

Why use this? You are hiring someone, or you have been offered a job, and you want to make sure the contract is legally compliant and fair. This is especially important since the Employment Rights Act 2025 introduced day-one unfair dismissal rights and other major changes.

Launches 4 parallel agents to produce a comprehensive employment document review with an ERA 2025 compliance dashboard.

Syntax

/legal employment <file>

What it does

1. Ingestion: Classifies the document (employment contract, offer letter, settlement agreement, policy document, handbook extract) and extracts metadata (employer, employee, role, salary, notice periods, probation).
2. Parallel analysis: Launches four equal-weight (25% each) subagents:

Agent	Role
legal-employment-contract	Analyses every clause against UK employment legislation, verifies written particulars compliance, assesses restrictive covenants, performs ERA 2025 impact assessment
legal-employment-rights	Verifies all 11 statutory employment rights: day-one unfair dismissal, SSP, flexible working, family leave, whistleblowing, working time, holiday, NMW/NLW, pension, tribunal time limits, zero-hours protections
legal-employment-discrimination	Scans every clause against all 9 protected characteristics, assesses harassment policy adequacy, evaluates equal pay provisions, identifies indirect discrimination risk
legal-employment-obligations	Extracts all obligations, maps key dates, builds operational timeline, calculates financial exposure on termination, assesses restrictive covenant enforceability

3. Aggregation: Produces Employment Review Score (0--100) with grade A+ to F.

Key legislation

Statute	What it covers
Employment Rights Act 2025	Day-one unfair dismissal, probation framework, SSP from day one, flexible working, zero-hours protections, third-party harassment duty, extended tribunal time limits
Equality Act 2010	9 protected characteristics, harassment (ss.26--27), equal pay (ss.64--80), pay secrecy (s.77), preventative duty (s.40A)
Working Time Regulations 1998	Maximum 48-hour week, rest breaks, holiday entitlement
National Minimum Wage Act 1998	Minimum pay rates by age band

Output sections

• Employment Review Score with grade
• ERA 2025 Compliance Dashboard (8 requirements, pass/fail/warning)
• Equality Act 2010 Compliance Matrix (9 protected characteristics)
• Harassment Policy Assessment
• Equal Pay Analysis
• Written Particulars Compliance (s.1 ERA 1996) -- 16 required particulars
• Clause-by-clause analysis sorted by risk
• Obligations timeline (during employment, on termination, post-termination restrictions)
• Financial exposure summary (notice pay, redundancy, bonus, holiday, pension, training clawback)
• Missing protections
• Prioritised recommendations

Example

/legal employment ./hr/employment-contract-draft.docx

Output filename

EMPLOYMENT-REVIEW-[name]-[date].md

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/legal ir35

Why use this? You are engaging a contractor (or you are a contractor) and need to know whether HMRC would consider the arrangement to be employment in disguise. Getting this wrong can mean a large unexpected tax bill.

7-factor HMRC CEST-aligned IR35 status determination for contractor and consultancy agreements.

Syntax

/legal ir35 <file>

What it does

Analyses a contractor agreement against seven factors derived from leading case law, each scored on a 5-point scale (+2 Strong Inside to -2 Strong Outside):

#	Factor	Inside indicator	Outside indicator
1	Control	Client dictates methods, hours, location	Worker decides how, when, where
2	Substitution	Must perform personally, no substitute right	Genuine unfettered right to send a substitute
3	Mutuality of obligation	Ongoing obligation to provide and accept work	Project-by-project, no obligation between engagements
4	Financial risk	Fixed rate, no rework liability	Fixed-price deliverables, bears cost of defects
5	Part and parcel	Client email, org chart, staff meetings	Own company branding, visitor access only
6	Equipment	Client provides all tools	Worker provides own significant equipment
7	Exclusivity	Cannot work for others	Free to take on other clients

Determination thresholds

Total score	Status	Meaning
+5 to +14	Inside IR35	Hallmarks of employment; PAYE applies
-4 to +4	Borderline	Finely balanced; professional advice recommended
-14 to -5	Outside IR35	Genuine self-employment

Case law cross-reference

The assessment is evaluated against:

• Ready Mixed Concrete v Minister of Pensions [1968] -- 3-part test
• Market Investigations v Minister of Social Security [1969] -- "in business on own account"
• Hall v Lorimer [1994] -- "painting a picture from accumulation of detail"
• Autoclenz v Belcher [2011] -- sham clauses disregarded
• Pimlico Plumbers v Smith [2018] -- substitution must be genuine and unfettered

Financial exposure estimate

Calculates the tax exposure if the engagement is determined inside IR35:

• Lost dividend efficiency for the worker/PSC
• Additional Income Tax and Employee NICs
• Employer NICs for the fee-payer (13.8% above threshold)
• Backdated liability risk (up to 6 years)

Example

/legal ir35 ./contracts/consultancy-agreement.pdf

Output filename

IR35-ASSESSMENT-[party-names]-[date].md

Key legislation

ITEPA 2003 (Chapter 10 -- off-payroll working rules), Companies Act 2006 (small company exemption thresholds).

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/legal freelancer

Why use this? You are a freelancer or contractor who has been sent a contract. You want to know whether the terms are fair, whether you are being misclassified, and what traps to watch out for -- like unlimited revisions, no kill fee, or an overly broad non-compete.

Reviews a contract specifically from the freelancer's perspective, including a Freelancer Bill of Rights checklist.

Syntax

/legal freelancer <file>

What it does

Analyses every clause through 14 critical lenses:

#	Lens	Key concern
1	Misclassification risk	IR35 red flags
2	IP ownership	Default ownership under CDPA 1988, blanket assignment traps
3	Payment terms	Net-90+, pay-when-paid, no kill fee
4	Kill fee / cancellation	Compensation if client terminates early
5	Scope creep protections	Change order process, vague scope language
6	Revision limits	Unlimited revisions trap
7	Non-compete	Duration, geography, activity scope, enforceability
8	Non-solicit	Client customers, employees, mutuality
9	Confidentiality scope	Overly broad definitions, portfolio restrictions
10	Liability and indemnification	Uncapped liability, one-sided indemnification
11	Portfolio usage rights	Right to showcase work
12	Insurance requirements	Proportionality to project scope
13	Tax responsibilities	Self Assessment, UTR, PAYE provisions
14	Dispute resolution	Forced arbitration, distant venue

Freelancer Fairness Score

Category	Weight
Payment terms and kill fee	20%
IP ownership and portfolio rights	20%
Scope and revision protections	15%
Non-compete / non-solicit	15%
Liability and indemnification	10%
Misclassification risk	10%
Confidentiality scope	5%
Dispute resolution	5%

Score	Grade	Verdict
85--100	A	Freelancer-friendly. Sign with confidence.
70--84	B	Mostly fair. Negotiate minor issues.
55--69	C	Mixed. Several terms need negotiation.
40--54	D	Client-favouring. Significant negotiation needed.
0--39	F	Exploitative. Do not sign without major revisions.

Common traps detected

Unlimited revisions, no kill fee, overly broad non-compete, blanket IP assignment, Net-90+ payment, vague scope, pay-when-paid, one-sided indemnification, no portfolio rights, forced arbitration, pre-existing IP grab, automatic renewal.

Example

/legal freelancer ./contracts/design-contract.pdf

Output filename

FREELANCER-REVIEW-[date].md

Key legislation

ITEPA 2003 (IR35), ERA 1996 (employment status), CDPA 1988 (copyright ownership).