Employment Law Advice Birmingham Law Solicitors Birmingham

The Fixed-Term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002 only apply to employees - people who have a fixed-term employment contract with the business where they work. They don't cover agency workers who have a contract with an outside company, apprentices, or students and other trainees on work-experience placements or temporary work schemes.

A fixed-term employee is a person with a contract of employment which is due to end when a specified date is reached, a specified event does or does not happen or a specified task has been completed.

This regulation enables fixed-term employees to have the same minimum rights as permanent workers.

The general rule is that, except where there's good reason, employers must not treat fixed-term employees less favourably than permanent employees doing the same, or largely the same, job.

This means that fixed-term employees have the right (except where there is good reason) to:

the same pay and conditions;

the same or equivalent benefits package;

access to an occupational (company) pension scheme (except perhaps where the fixed-term contract is for less than two years);

be informed about permanent employment opportunities in the organisation.

Fixed-term employees do not have the right to the same pay, conditions and benefits if their overall terms and conditions, although different from those for permanent employees, are just as good or better. For example, an employer can choose to give fixed-term employees better pay instead of pension rights.

Not renewing a fixed-term contract is treated as a dismissal, so if the contract is not renewed fixed-term employees also have:

full redundancy rights (if continuously employed for two years or more, unless they signed a clause waiving their right to a redundancy payment before 1 October 2002);

statutory protection against unfair dismissal (once they have one year's service)