As far as I know it doesn't matter - if you work 3 months under your contract, it counts as acepting it!

....might be wrong though!

Ask for a copy of the one your signed when joining.

You did sign one?

Me neither, never seen one (or even remember signing one) for AfC.

You don't need to have signed a "contract" as such - merely working there and taking their salary shows acceptance.

You could ask for a written statement of the particulars of your employment though - they are supposed to have given you this already, but are required to correct the mistake if they have not...

Martin

Ask to see a copy of your HR record. You can do it either through the normal procedure or the Data Protection Act (DPA) with a Subject Access Request. Sometimes it's faster with a DPA requeste because there are deadlines, there might not be deadlines with the normal procedures.

BTW- I've been a reader for over a year but never commented before. I was thinking of you on Friday when I had a car door opened into my cycle path and I hit the door. I was injured and badly dazed. It happened outside of a London police station and an officer came out and said he had called an ambulance. I waited for 40 minutes and my friend who came and found me found was told an ambulance wasn't called so the police offered to call one then. I could limp so we took a cab to the A&E. I know how you feel about the walking wounded tying up ambulance time.

Exact same thing happened to me a couple of months back - passenger door of car stopped at lights outside train station.

I clearly needed a trip to A&E to get stitched up - big cut on my knee (turns out car doors are sharp when you hit them at speed!). I could have got a taxi/whatever, but the transport police called the ambulance. Felt very guilty for tying up the ambulance and crew!

You haven't missed much, if it's anything like mine. I've seen mine, literally. Read it? No. It's a bloody book and my eyes glazed over about three sentences into it. I have no conscious recollection of what happened then. They probably had to bring me around with oxygen and Klatchian coffee.

from the direct.gov website
"A contract of employment is an agreement between an employer and an employee. Your rights and duties, and those of your employer, are called the ‘terms' of the contract.
The contract doesn’t have to be in writing, but you’re entitled to a written statement of the main terms within two months of starting work.
The contract is made as soon as you accept a job offer, and both sides are then bound by its terms until it’s properly ended (usually by giving notice) or until the terms are changed (usually by mutual agreement).
If you are an employee, you must get a ‘written statement of employment particulars’ setting out some of your main terms. Your employer must give you this within two months of starting work. The statement must include:

* pay
* hours of work
* holiday entitlement
* sick pay arrangements
* notice periods
* information about disciplinary and grievance procedures

more details here www.direct.gov.uk/en/employment/employees/employmentcontractsandconditions/dg_10027905

Sounds ominous - you nearly got asked out for a bevvie Sat night, but was too tired, took the opportunity of being in Oxford St to buy your book though.

I don't think many places issued new contracts following AfC apart from the letter confirming salaries and telling you where you could find your new terms & conditions. So you probably do have a contract sitting around somewhere in the depths of an HR file and it shouldn't be too difficult for someone to dig it out for you. BUT, if it's not been updated since your move to AfC it won't tell you much about your terms anyway. This link might if you can be bothered to wade through 198 pages of it! http://www.nhsemployers.org/pay-conditions/pay-conditions-217.cfm

Your first commenter is correct, just by doing the job you have accepted the contract - I am sure this will all change soon though, it's a golden opportunity in waiting to waste more money tying everything down....

For public servants it's usually called a 'Staff Handbook'. That's what we had at OS (civil service), anyway.