Employment Contracts For Restaurant Managers

What should you put in a restaurant manager employment contract when the role is much more than just supervising a shift?

The reassuring answer is that it doesn't have to be complicated, but it does need to be specific. A restaurant manager often handles cash, staff performance, stock, suppliers, rotas, complaints, food safety processes and confidential business information. A basic hospitality contract can leave too many gaps.

If you're hiring someone to run the floor, open and close the premises, manage bookings or lead your team while you're not there, the contract should reflect that level of trust and responsibility from day one.

Do You Need A Written Employment Contract For A Restaurant Manager?

Yes, you should have a written employment contract for your restaurant manager, and you also need to give them written particulars of employment from day one.

Under the Employment Rights Act 1996, employees and workers in England, Wales and Scotland are entitled to a written statement of key employment terms on or before their first day. This covers core information like pay, hours, holiday, notice, place of work and job title.

For a manager, a proper full-time or part-time employment contract usually goes further than the minimum written statement. It helps you set clear expectations around:

• management duties and decision-making authority
• opening and closing responsibilities
• cash handling, tills and banking processes
• stock control and wastage reporting
• rota planning and staff supervision
• confidentiality and business information
• tips, service charge and tronc arrangements
• probation, notice and performance standards
• post-employment restrictions, where appropriate

Employment contract templates can be a useful starting point, but restaurant management roles are often too operational for a one-size-fits-all document. The contract should match how your venue actually runs.

What Restaurant Manager Contract Terms Should You Include?

You should include the standard employment terms plus extra clauses that deal with the manager's senior duties and day-to-day control over your restaurant.

At a minimum, your contract should cover:

• Job title and reporting line: For example, whether the manager reports to you, a general manager or the company director.
• Start date and continuous employment date: This matters for statutory rights and length of service.
• Place of work: Include whether they may be required to work across more than one venue.
• Hours of work: Set out expected working patterns, flexibility and any weekend or evening work.
• Pay: Include salary, pay frequency and any bonus or incentive structure.
• Holiday entitlement: Full-time employees are entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid annual leave per year, which can include bank holidays.
• Sick pay: Explain statutory sick pay and any enhanced company sick pay you offer.
• Notice periods: Cover both the notice they must give you and the notice you'll give them.
• Probation: Set the length of probation and what happens if performance isn't meeting expectations.
• Policies: Refer to disciplinary, grievance, equal opportunities, health and safety, data protection and food safety policies.

For a restaurant manager, you should also be clear about what they're allowed to approve without you. For example, can they authorise refunds, comp meals, supplier orders, overtime, staff shift swaps or agency staff?

Say you run a neighbourhood restaurant in Manchester and your manager is responsible for approving wine orders, handling customer complaints and setting weekly rotas. If the contract doesn't mention those powers, you may find it harder to challenge overspending, poor staffing decisions or inconsistent customer refunds later.

How Should You Deal With Rotas, Overtime And Working Time?

You should set out expected working patterns clearly, while still giving your business enough flexibility to cover busy services, staff shortages and seasonal changes.

Restaurant managers often work outside standard office hours. Your contract might say the manager's usual hours are 40 or 45 hours per week, with shifts scheduled according to the rota. It can also say that reasonable additional hours may be required to fulfil the role, especially during peak trading periods.

That said, you still need to keep the Working Time Regulations 1998 in mind. In most cases:

• workers shouldn't work more than an average of 48 hours per week over the relevant reference period, unless they have signed a valid opt-out
• workers are usually entitled to a 20-minute uninterrupted rest break if they work more than 6 hours in a day
• workers are usually entitled to 11 hours' rest between working days
• workers are usually entitled to 24 hours' uninterrupted rest each week, or 48 hours each fortnight

If you use a 48-hour opt-out, don't treat it as a shortcut around good rota planning. A tired manager making cash, safety and staffing decisions can create bigger problems for your business.

Should A Restaurant Manager Be Paid Overtime?

It depends on what you agree in the contract. Some managers are paid a salary that covers all reasonable hours needed for the role. Others receive overtime, time off in lieu or extra pay for particular shifts.

Whatever approach you choose, make it clear. You should also check that their total pay, when measured against the hours actually worked, doesn't fall below the National Minimum Wage. From 1 April 2026, the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over is £12.71 per hour. Rates usually change each April, and different rates apply to younger workers and apprentices, so check the current GOV.UK minimum wage rates before finalising pay.

What Staff Obligations Should A Restaurant Manager Have?

Your restaurant manager should have obligations that reflect both ordinary employee duties and their added responsibility for your staff, customers, stock and premises.

Useful obligations can include requirements to:

• follow your food safety, hygiene and allergen procedures
• supervise staff fairly and consistently
• prepare and manage rotas in line with your processes
• report absences, lateness and performance issues promptly
• follow cash handling, till reconciliation and banking rules
• monitor stock levels, wastage and supplier deliveries
• protect company property, keys, alarm codes and access cards
• handle customer complaints professionally
• avoid conflicts of interest, such as working for a competing venue without approval
• comply with your data protection policies when handling staff and customer information

You can also include a duty to comply with lawful and reasonable instructions. This gives you flexibility where the role evolves, without needing to rewrite the contract every time you change a process.

For example, if you introduce a new booking platform or stock management system, the manager should be expected to use it properly, train staff on it where needed and keep login details secure.

How Should You Handle Tips, Service Charges And Troncs?

You should explain your tips and service charge arrangements in writing, especially since rules in England, Wales and Scotland now require fair and transparent allocation of qualifying tips.

The Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 introduced rules requiring employers to pass on qualifying tips, gratuities and service charges to workers without deductions, other than limited deductions such as tax where applicable. Qualifying tips must be allocated fairly and paid no later than the end of the month after the month the customer paid them. A statutory Code of Practice also helps guide fair allocation.

If tips are part of how your restaurant operates, your manager's contract should work alongside a clear tipping or tronc policy. Where qualifying tips are paid on more than an occasional and exceptional basis, employers must maintain a written tipping policy available to workers and keep records of how qualifying tips are dealt with. Your policy should cover:

• whether tips are paid directly by customers, collected by the business or handled through a tronc
• how tips and service charges are allocated between front of house, kitchen and management staff
• when tips are paid
• who makes allocation decisions
• what records you keep
• how staff can raise concerns about tip allocation

Be careful if your manager has a role in distributing tips. You don't want one person making informal decisions with no record, especially if junior staff later say the system wasn't fair.

You should also avoid using tips to make up ordinary wages. Pay should be set properly on its own, with tips dealt with separately and transparently.

Do You Need Confidentiality And Restrictive Covenant Clauses?

Yes, confidentiality clauses are usually essential for a restaurant manager, and restrictive covenants may be useful if they're carefully drafted and reasonable.

Your manager may have access to sensitive information that helps your restaurant compete. This can include:

• supplier prices and contacts
• recipes, preparation methods or menu development plans
• profit margins and sales reports
• staff pay information and performance issues
• customer databases, private dining contacts or event enquiries
• marketing plans and launch dates
• security codes, alarm details and operational processes

A confidentiality clause should make it clear that this information can't be used or disclosed outside the job, both during employment and after it ends.

Restrictive covenants are different. These are clauses that limit what someone can do after leaving your business. For example, you might want to stop a manager from poaching your head chef, approaching your key event clients or using confidential supplier information for a competitor.

Common restrictions include:

• Non-solicitation: They can't actively approach your customers, suppliers or staff for a limited period.
• Non-dealing: They can't deal with certain customers or suppliers, even if those people approach them first.
• Non-poaching: They can't encourage your employees to leave and join them elsewhere.
• Non-compete: They can't work for or set up a competing business in a defined area for a limited time.

Courts in England and Wales only enforce restrictive covenants if they protect a legitimate business interest and go no further than reasonably necessary. A six-month restriction stopping a senior manager from poaching your staff may be easier to justify than a broad one-year ban on working in hospitality anywhere in the UK.

If you want restrictions, get them tailored to the manager's role, seniority and access to confidential information. Overreaching clauses can be difficult to rely on when you need them most.

How Does Probation Work For A Restaurant Manager?

Probation is useful, but it doesn't remove your employment law obligations or give you unlimited freedom to dismiss someone unfairly.

A restaurant manager probation period is often 3 or 6 months. During this time, you can assess whether they can lead the team, handle pressure, manage stock, control costs and keep service standards consistent.

Your contract should say:

• how long probation lasts
• whether you can extend it
• what notice applies during probation
• what standards you expect them to meet
• whether benefits or bonuses only apply after probation is passed

If you dismiss an employee, statutory minimum notice under the Employment Rights Act 1996 is at least one week after one month's service, then one week for each complete year of service from two years onwards, up to 12 weeks. If the employee resigns, their statutory minimum notice is one week after one month's service, unless the contract requires longer notice. You can agree longer notice in the contract.

Many employers use a shorter contractual notice period during probation, such as one week, then a longer period after probation. For a senior manager, you may want an executive-level employment contract with a longer post-probation notice period, such as one or three months, because it can take time to recruit and hand over properly.

Even during probation, be careful with dismissals linked to discrimination, whistleblowing, health and safety concerns or other protected rights. ACAS guidance also encourages employers to handle performance concerns fairly, with clear communication and records.

As at October 2026, ordinary unfair dismissal protection generally still requires two years' service, but under the Employment Rights Act 2025 this is due to reduce to six months for dismissals with an effective termination date on or after 1 January 2027. Probation doesn't avoid day-one protections such as discrimination, whistleblowing, health and safety or breach of contract risks.

What Other Policies Should Sit Alongside The Contract?

Your contract should be supported by practical workplace policies, especially because restaurant managers often enforce those policies for the rest of the team.

The contract is where you set the legal relationship. Policies explain the day-to-day rules. For a restaurant, useful policies may include:

• disciplinary and grievance procedures, aligned with the ACAS Code of Practice
• equal opportunities, anti-harassment and bullying policies
• health and safety procedures
• food hygiene and allergen procedures
• alcohol service and licensing procedures, where relevant
• cash handling and stock control procedures
• rota, absence and lateness rules
• tips and service charge policy
• data protection and CCTV policies
• social media and online review response guidelines

If your manager handles staff records, rota systems, customer bookings or CCTV, you should also think about UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. They need to know what personal data they can access, how long records are kept and what to do if something goes wrong, such as sending staff details to the wrong person.

Policies don't need to be long or full of legal language. The best ones are clear enough for a busy shift, but detailed enough to guide decisions when something goes wrong.

Key Takeaways

• A restaurant manager employment contract should go beyond basic hospitality terms because the role usually involves senior operational duties.
• Be clear about rotas, overtime, working time limits and whether the manager is expected to work flexible hours.
• Set out manager-specific obligations around stock control, cash handling, staff supervision, food safety and customer complaints.
• Tips, service charges and troncs should be handled transparently and in line with current rules in England, Wales and Scotland.
• Confidentiality clauses are usually essential, and restrictive covenants can help if they're reasonable and tailored to the role.
• Probation, notice and workplace policies should be practical, documented and consistent with ACAS guidance.

If you'd like help with your restaurant manager contracts, hospitality staff terms, tipping policies or workplace procedures, you can reach us at 08081347754 or team@sprintlaw.co.uk for a free, no-obligations chat.