anyone know anything about tenured posts? do you get redundancy pay?

[hatwoman]

Does anyone know where the law stands on posts that are for a defined, limited (but sometimes long) period of time. I'm talking about a kind of prominent position where you are appointed for 4 years - sometimes renewable for a second, 4-year term. What happens at the end of that? Is it just accepted that it was for 4 (or perhaps 8) years and off you pop. Or is it the same as any fixed-term contract where you would have to be made redundent. Does the term "tenure" mean anything different? Does it apply to exceptional circumstances and protect the employer from having to pay redundancy? many thanks

actually thinking about it the case I'm talking about couldn;t be redundancy - because the post continues to exist. so not at all sure what the situation is at the end of the 4 (or 8) years

Mrs Obama, is that you?

Its a fixed term contract - so you get nothing after the 4/8 years

I'm very fuzzy on this but am pretty sure that there's a limit - two years, perhaps - after which employment is classed as permanent and therefore a redundancy (or other termination) process needs to be followed.

(But do please wait until someone with more knowledge than me comes along - I'm just working from a fairly unreliable memory!).

I know some research institutes/universities do pay redundancy for fixed term posts but I'm not sure whether they're legally obliged to do so. Although the more cynical side of me thinks they wouldn't do it unless they had to, given how many people are on fixed term funding. The instances I'm aware of have been 4/5 years funding.

CMot - that's not correct.

I'm not a lawyer so no expert, but my husband is an academic on short-term contracts so we have experience of this!

As I understand it, you should get statutory redundancy pay (or whatever it states in your contract) if you're been working for the institution for more than 2 years.

You're entitled to redundancy pay by law if a contract lasts for more than two years, regardless of whether it's permanent or not.

However statutory redundancy pay is not very much in comparison to most contracts - it's only 1 week's pay per year of service, to a maximum value, depending on your age and length of service. You can calculate it here

Academics on permanent posts usually have much better rights. Annoyingly. Grrr.

I'm not sure what the case is for specialist employers btw. There are different rules for things like MPs and diplomatic posts, I believe.

Was thinking more about this - I think it depends whether the law sees you as an employee or not. If you're an employee you have certain rights, but a post-holder, even one financially rewarded, isn't necessarily an employee.

We need an employment lawyer really.

in the case of my job i did 10 hours per week but then took on another separately funded post. so they cut my 10 hours down to 2 and i did an extra 15 as part of funded post.

now funded post is ending august and i was hoping to go back to the 10 hours but this has been cut, so even though i have been there 6 years all the redundancy i get is based on the 2 hours.

it sucks :( not sure if this is what you mean though

God SAE that's dreadful.

Was the separately funded post still paid by the same employer? If so, I think you'd have an argument for claiming for the full 17 hours - surely?

it's funded externally :(

Yes but were you paid by your employer - is your contract with them or did you effectively have two employers?

I don't think it should matter where the funding came from - my husband's post is funded by a grant body and the funding sometimes changes - but his contract is with his university and that's what matters.

i'm paid and contracted by employer - maybe i should talk to hr to get it clear!

yes do! And maybe your union too, if you have one, and if HR look like they're not being helpful.

If it's all coming into your bank account in one lump sum from your main employer, then I think at the very least you should try for the full sum. Nothing ventured nothing gained as they say...