entitlement to paid holiday or payment in lieu of it. The industry agreements do not, though, apply to contracts between companies.

If you use the model contracts reflecting the terms of the industry agreements, or otherwise incorporate the terms of those agreements into your contracts, you can be confident that all your obligations will have been covered in the contract. It is up to you, though, to meet those obligations in practice. For more information about those agreements, click on the relevant icons on the next page.

There is no avoiding the fact that this is a complex area. If you are new to it, you should seriously consider a good training course. With or without training, though, if you are in doubt about anything to do with hiring people, whether as employees, as self-employed, or by sub-contracting a company, you should get expert advice. Not doing so could land you with serious and potentially expensive problems.

PACT members can get that advice from the Producersâ Industrial Relations Service (PIRS) at (tel) 44 (0)207-830-6600, or (e-mail) pirs@pact.co.uk