Redundancy: previous contract not counted in continuous employment

[Treesinthewind]

Hi everyone,

I am being made redundant and am trying to work out my entitlements. I have been on a permanent contract since 1 April 2013, so that would entitled me to 7 weeks of redundancy pay, 7 weeks of notice etc.
I did however have a fixed term contract for the same role, which ran from 1 April 2012 to 31 March.
When I signed the new contract, it includes the line:
"Your continuous employment will commence on 1 April 2013. No previous employment with the company or a previous employer counts towards your period of continuous employment with the company."
I was young and naive when I started this job and didn't envisage myself staying there long enough for this to be an issue! Yet here I am!
Should the year 2012-2013 be counted as part of my redundancy calculations?
Thanks in advance.

Based on that clause, the fixed term contract period wouldn't be included in your continuous employment, so they would only calculate from the April 2013 start date (as if you weren't even there before). Whether or not that's legally correct or not I don't know, hopefully someone who knows a bit more about the legal side of it than me will come along and tell you.

You started your perm role with the same organisation the day after your fixed term contract finished? If so, the fixed term contract counts towards continuous service regardless of what the contract says.

I agree that your service started when you commenced your fixed term posting unless there was a gap in service. There is legalisation covering this just google foxed term legalisation

I believe an employment tribunal would treat that as continuous service, regardless of that clause