Temporary contract ended against company policy, is there anything that can be done?

[Marabou]

Hello everyone,


I'm asking this for a colleague of mine, who has recently returned to work after a 1-year maternity leave.

She has a temporary contract, which was renewed right before she went on maternity leave and this is now coming to an end in May. Altogether she has worked in my company for three years on three consecutive temporary contracts.

I understand that by law you can only work on a temporary contract for 4 years, after which point the employer has to either renew your contract on permanent basis or let you go. However, my company has an internal policy, which they have communicated to everyone in writing, whereby they only extend temporary contracts up to a maximum of 24 months. Thereafter, a decision is made to either make the contract permanent or end it.

My colleague is now wondering if she can argue that she has been treated unfairly, as the company has not followed this policy.

Thanks for any thoughts on this!

[flowery]

It's a bit late for that really - if she feels they were unfair in not giving her a permanent contract/ending her employment at the two year point she should have raised it then. Did she question it at that point?

What reason was giving for another temp contract being issued rather than a permanent one/ending it? What reason is she being given now for her contract being ended? Redundancy? What's happening to her work?

[Marabou]

Hey there, I was hoping you might be around :)!

No, unfortunately she did not question their decision at the time. Actually, she wasn't fully aware of the policy back then. The communication concerning this policy was only recently sent to everyone by email, as the company wished to clarify the policy following several queries to HR. In the employee handbook, the policy is not specified and it is simply stated once should contact HR to find out what the policy concerning moving from a fixed-term to permanent contract is.

I am not sure as to what the reason for not making her permanent was.. The reason given now for ending the contract is restructuring of the team where she originally worked before her maternity leave. Her original department is closing by 2012 and the activity there is being moved elsewhere (out of the UK). Since her return from her maternity leave she has worked at another department, which is not closing and where the activity has recently been so high that the company has hired nearly 50 agency workers to help out.

[flowery]

So it's a recent policy not as far as she is aware in operation at the time she reached two years?

In that case she needs to focus on why her contract is ending now, whether there is suitable work for her to do, and if so, why she is not being offered it.

[Marabou]

She had a meeting today, where it was confirmed that her contract would end in May as planned. The policy concerning renewal of temporary contracts had been in place when her contract was last renewed, but she was not informed of this and nor was the policy openly "advertised".

Today she was told that the company did not have the opportunity to keep her on due to the changing business needs and not due to any performance issues. She was also told that the decision to renew her contract the last time was taken due to her pregnancy. The company had apparently felt it was more ethical of them to keep her on during her maternity leave.

When she asked why she could not continue in her current department, where there are no plans for redundancies, she was told there were no permanent positions available, which she could apply for. In this department the company is currently using temporary agency workers, as the regular staff cannot cope with the current workload. While she technically could still work for the company on temporary basis for another year, whe was told that the company would not allow her to apply for a temporary position, because this would mean that they would have to make her permanent after one year.