Full Time and Part Time Contracts:

Full time employees should be expected to arrive on time and work through their shift for 35 - 45 hours per week. full time workers are entitled to paid holidays for someone working 5 days a week it would usually be 5-6 weeks. employers are incredibly reliant on this type of contract and this contract would also make up a lot of the work force. these roles generally can apply to any type of work inside the game studio.

Part time employees are executed to do the same as full time employees except they have much shorter hours (often less than 30 hours per week) they often earn the same per hour but can sometimes earn more or less depending on the hours they do. these employees are usually called on if another full time employee is away or they need some extra work force. they are entitled to the same holiday and sick pay as full time employees.

FreeLance

these are self employed workers who would work for a company for a set amount of time and often would work from home or a personal office. Freelancers generally sort out their own tax payments. employers are still in responsibility for their health and safety with work related tasks and they are not entitled to the same right for example minimum wage as they may just be payed a set amount to do a task no matter long it takes.

freelance from a games industry standpoint would most likely be a highly skilled programmer or artist that would help out with the project for example freelance worker Trent Kaniuga who does art work for a lot of different games companies

Zero Hour

usually for "peace work" or "on call" work. this simply means that the employer can call on a zero hour contracted employee at anytime for work and also they may not offer work on a schedule, on the other hand the employee can turn down work offered. zero hour workers can have multiple zero hour contracts and are entitled to minimum wage and statutory annual leave. as in most cases the employer is responsible for the health and safety of the worker when they are taking part in work tasks.

Fixed term

These contract are discussed to an end date and will end when a specific task is completed or when a specific event takes place. fixed term employees will receive the same treatment as full time employees and are often offered the same pay.

These contracts would be used to hire someone to work on the game project until the release date of the game.

Employing family members, young people and volunteers

if you hire family members you must avoid any special or unfair treatment that makes the privileged compared to your other workers. you must still make sure all tax and insurances are still paid. for any younger family members all work times regulations must still apply and you must have coverage that covers young family members. you must also check if you need to provide them with a workplace pension scheme as this varies depending on the situation.

When hiring volunteers you are responsible for their health and safety and you must give inductions and training to insure that they know what they are doing and that they stay safe

Hiring young people; a young work is 13-18 years of age at 18 you are classed as an adult worker. young employees may have certain employment rights like Statutory maternity pay and ordinary statutory pay if they qualify for such, they may also be entitled to paid time off for studying and/or training, they could also be eligible for redundancy pay

Agency staff

As an employer it is possible to hire temporary staff through agencies. you would have to pay the agency and you would pay the employees national insurance and statutory sick pay. its down to the agency to make sure workers get their rights under working time regulations. After 12 weeks agency workers will have all the same rights as a full time worker including pay, hours and rest periods etc. the agency must know your terms and conditions so that they can insure the employee gets treated equally after 12 weeks. Agency workers are aloud to use any shared facilities for example the canteen, toilets etc. even though the agency is responsible for the worker being treated correctly, health and safety is still the employers responsibility.

References:

GOV.co.uk. (2016). Contract types and employer responsibilities . Available: https://www.gov.uk/contract-types-and-employer-responsibilities/overview. Last accessed 29th Nov 2016.