Employment law: " You've been doing the job for 2 years"

DonDaddyD

There seems to be an assumption that if you've been doing the job for two years the organisation is obliged to give you the permanent position.

Is this actually the case?

Scenario:

Staff member (not me, lets not make this personal) is on a fixed term contract (that has been extended twice) and at the end of their contract they will have done the job for slightly longer than two years. At that time will they be entitled to the job without interview or some form of process? Will they just be handed a substantive contract or are they now entitled to a substantive contract?

Just curious.

Maxticate

Guidelines are if you have been on a temporary contract for time totalling 4 years if the employer wants to keep you on that temporary contract then they have to make a very good case for why you should not be made permanent.

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?itemId=1073793880&type=RESOURCES

edhornby

all depends on the stated role, the contract terms and whether it is performing what would be a permanent role in the organisation

so if you were contracted to do a certain role and at the end of the term the role is no longer specified in the organisation then no perm assumption

if you are covering a permanent role that hasn't been filled by a permanent person then it's probably up for discussion, especially if they have published an org chart with your name on

scrumpydave

I think you're looking at this from the wrong perspective. Employing temporary staff can be a tax efficient alternative to employing full time staff. HMRC don't like that. Offering you a permanent contract would be one way out of that situation, canning you would be the other.

The rules are not there to help temps. They are there to prevent tax fiddling.

meanredspider

There are definitely some guidelines on this. Employers I've worked for have been paranoid about it, forcing us to rotate temp labour every year (which is a PITA) to avoid temps claiming rights as a permanent employee. I used to know more about this but I've forgotten the background.

DonDaddyD

OK more info is needed I guess.

Despite the fixed term contract the person is paid in exactly the same as a permanent member of staff (so no tax or PAYE issues).

As this is a public sector job they have they are entitled to (as far as I know) exactly the same things as a person with a substantive contract.

The only difference between this person and a person with a substantive contract is the contract of employment.

lardboy

After 2 years doing a job on a fixed term contract (including extensions etc), then the employee is entitled to the same redundancy benefits as a full time employee, including redundancy notice, payment in lieu of notice, retraining allowances etc. You'll find very few places with generous redundancy packages allowing an FTE to work there for more than 2 years unbroken. I've heard of places terminating and rehiring with a week's break to avoid giving the employee any additional benefits.

DonDaddyD

lardboy wrote:

After 2 years doing a job on a fixed term contract (including extensions etc), then the employee is entitled to the same redundancy benefits as a full time employee, including redundancy notice, payment in lieu of notice, retraining allowances etc. You'll find very few places with generous redundancy packages allowing an FTE to work there for more than 2 years unbroken. I've heard of places terminating and rehiring with a week's break to avoid giving the employee any additional benefits.

Really!

So person working a fixed term contract for more than two years. Contract ends and they are not given the substantive post/hired due to interview/role deletion would then be made redundant.

Interesting. In my organisation I think they are obliged to give a person who is facing redundancy the/a post which is where this assumption may result from.

lardboy

Lots of FTE info here:

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/ac ... =RESOURCES

DonDaddyD

Many thanks