Ending a fixed term contract

[smine1]

Hi all , looking for a little advise if anyone has any. I am on a fixed contract for a year , covering MAT leave.. well not directly so I'll show the ladder Joan is on mat leave , Paul stepped up to Joan's role and Paula stepped up to Paul's role I'm in Paula's role for a year. Last week paula (my line manager) told me that Paul is stepping down from Joan's role because he's not coping , In turn Paula comes back to her old role (the one I'm doing).
Paula tells me the news last week , tells me it won't effect me until my contract is up in June however I may be deployed within the company in march .. fine by me! I'm told yesterday that they are looking at the financial year and I may have my contract ended sooner .. wtf! She tells me this at 3.30 telling me to speak to HR knowing they'd had finished for a 3day break!! My 1-2-1 have been glowing , I've settled really well and have had good feedback from the teams. They say they will try and place me somewhere within the company rather than me go ... however .. what I'm unsure of is can they just get rid of me on a fixed term contract with no performance issues ? It's really left me feeling crap and not knowing if they can pull the plug as and when ..

Yes they can end the contract at any time by giving you the correct notice - likely one month. It sounds like they are trying to be open with you and give you more notice than that.

Thank you , it stats in my contract one week so it sounds like I should start looking now.

Hi,

You do need to check your contract.

2018 I did a ftc for 9 months in a sales role, found out by month 6 I probably wouldn't be needed at month 9 but in that role after 3 months I gained 1 months' notice required by either party. I was invited by letter to discuss early termination, at which point they started discussing a month notice doing a boring data entry job.

2022 - 1 years fixed term contract in another industry entirely with lots of others, from first day of FTC, the notice period was one month (employee) V's 1 week (employer) probation period had absolutely no effect and I even liked how it could extend your probation to the 12th month lol. I managed to leave pretty swiftly for a perm job elsewhere, without too much ill feeling. I just blocked out how wrong I was, no way did I want to become one of 12+ people having to re-interview for all of 2 permanent roles on a wing and pray.

Yes you need to get looking. A FTC doesn’t mean they have to keep you until the end of the term, nor that you are bound to the company until the end of the term. Notice periods operate as normal (other than at the end) this is a very short one unfortunately.