Continuity of Service - not including Fixed Term Contract?

[Jenjo1984]

Hi All,

Wondering if any lovely HR experts could clear something up for me?

I was employed on a 12 month Fixed Term Contract in a Project Management role. The original contract ended in May and was then extended (by letter) to end of July while a permanent contract was being approved. Things got a bit delayed so it's only today that I have received my new permanent contract in the post.

Everything is as expected apart from the section entitled 'Commencement & Continuity of Employment' which states - The starting date or date from which your service with XX is deemed to be continuous will be 26th August 2016'.

I'm not sure if it's a big deal (or worth making a fuss about) but I thought that continuous employment would start from May 2015, ie the first day I worked for them? Am I wrong and it only starts from the permanent contract start date even though there is no break in service?

Thanks in advance.

That doesn't sound right if there's been no break in service and you were employed as an employee previously. It could be a typo?

On your FTC did you have a fixed term contract or a contract for services? Were you paid salary via company payroll each month?

It is a big deal- you have 15 months of service which means in 9 months you hit the crucial 2 year mark in terms of employment rights and right to redundancy pay. Definitely speak to your HR department next week.

Yes, if you were employed by them on an FTC your continuous employment is from when you started

Thanks both.

I did wonder if it might be a typo, or more likely a misunderstanding as HR is a little hit and miss – although, in fairness, more for lack of knowledge than anything sinister I think.

Just wanted to be sure before I approached them in case I was wrong as I was thinking ‘that doesn’t seem right’ but no amount of googling was giving me a definitive answer.