BENEFITS SURGERY: Employment contracts

Employment contracts often state that the employer will conduct a periodic salary review at its complete discretion, with no obligation on the employer to agree to an increase. As such, most employees are not contractually entitled to regular pay increases. Pay freezes, while unpopular, are therefore unlikely to constitute a variation to employees' contracts of employment and employers will be entitled to introduce such measures as, and when, they want, for as long as they want.