New rights for fixed-term employees

The Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations come into force on 1 October 2002. The Regulations, which implement the EC Fixed-Term Work Directive (No.99/70), give fixed-term employees the right in principle not to be treated less favourably than permanent employees of the same employer doing similar work. The right, which is exercisable by complaint to an employment tribunal, applies where the less favourable treatment is on the ground that the employee is employed on a fixed-term contract, and is not justified on objective grounds.

A limit is also placed on the number of fixed-term contracts an employee may work under. The use of successive contracts as an alternative to 'permanent employment' has been identified as a form of abuse that denies employees rights they would otherwise receive. Accordingly, the Regulations provide that where a fixed-term employee who has been continuously employed on fixed-term contracts for four years or more is re-engaged on a fixed-term contract without his or her continuity being broken, the new contract has effect under the law as a permanent contract unless the renewal on a fixed-term basis was objectively justified.

Where relevant, the Regulations make a number of amendments to primary legislation to remove discrimination in statutory rights between fixed-term employees (or certain types of fixed-term employees) and permanent employees.

View a copy of the Regulations on the HMSO website.

The DTI has also published guidance on the Regulations entitled 'Fixed Term Work: A Guide to the Regulations' (PL512). View a copy of the Guide on the DTI website.