FTC and redundancy entitlement

[Banditdog]

My husband has been on a FTC for about two and a half years. He is due to finish at the end of August. I believe that as he has more than two years tenure, this would be a redundancy situation and he is entitled to at least statutory redundancy pay and possibly enhanced redundancy pay of his company offers it (that I have asked him to check and I do not know).

Am I correct in my line of thinking?

Yes

Thank you. His FTC have been extended time and time again, I think the first was for a year, but his employment has been uninterrupted and he has worked there full time for over 2.5 years.

If he's employed directly by a company and not through an agency then yes he's entitled to the same rights as permanent employees after that long. But if the employer can prove that there was a fair and valid reason for terminating the contract, such as a specific workstream coming to an end, rather than a redundancy situation, then he won't be entitled to redundancy.

He is employed and paid directly. How work has not come to an end, but they have recruited a cheaper person to carry out that work. He has trained the less experienced person, in fact he is still doing that.

*However not how

As an aside he is not disgruntled about them taking on somebody more junior. He has basically come in and fixed and automated processes so somebody more junior can do it. He has done that before. It is really me more than him that is saying after 2.5 years, I think you are entitled to redundancy.

If they have employed someone more junior to do virtually the same job then that's not redundancy, it's unfair dismissal, but he is still entitled to claim. He should contact ACAS for advice.

Oh yes, most definitely his job has not gone anywhere he is training his replacement. The replacement will be less experienced than my DH because y DH has massively automated but they don’t want to pay at his higher skill level any more as they don’t need to as he had made the job easier.

I take your point on unfair dismissal although we were both probably thinking redundancy pay would be fine, but yes I di take your point this is not redundancy - although it was a fixed term contact?

I've been on fixed time contracts which were renewed rather than extended and didn't get redundancy but did get a full months pay and not required to work notice. I also got a letter explaining why they weren't renewing (grant funding not renewed, a charity). If they are hiring cheaper then it would be worth getting better clarification of rights as it's close to unfair dismissal after 2 years

You raise another point, in that he hasn’t been given notice, other than his FTC was die to end. I believe he was entitled to receive notice too?

He would usually only be entitled to receive notice if they had terminated the contract early.

This is a good summary of his rights. He should definitely call ACAS tomorrow for assistance

www.jobsite.co.uk/advice/fixed-term-contract-rights-after-2-years

Update on this. He has said to the employer that as he has been there for over two years, he would like to know the fair reason for dismissal. At first they didn’t appear to even understand him and then he got dragged into a meeting with no notice, was brown beaten, spoken over, comments like “where is this coming from” and when he mentioned the five fair reasons for dismissal they said “it’s the last one” i.e. some other significant reason. He asked what the significant reason was and they said the contract end date. 🙄

He is still entitled to redundancy even though the FTE is ending. Speak to ACAS, they can advise.

i don’t think you’ve helped your DH here much. I hope he doesn’t want to work at this company again or it’s a small industry!! You’ve really pissed them off by the sound of it.

Its the natural end of a fixed term contract. That’s why they say he’s not due redundancy and the reason is “some other substantial reason” which is a fair reason. He knew his contract was going to end and the basis he was brought on.

This forum is really about legal advice. If my husband was being paid less than minimum wage or wasn’t getting statutory holiday allowance, I would point that out to him too. Whether his employer liked it or not.

I don’t think expecting an employer to abide by the law is really too much to ask. I also think sometimes employers just need to be challenged so that they behave better towards employees in the future.

But your legal advice is incorrect. They are abiding by the law.

And sometimes even where they aren’t it’s worth looking at the bigger picture and keeping relations cordial.

That’s all I was saying…!

You’re wrong. Hth

Only they aren’t.. whatever. 🙄

You are completely wrong and they are not abiding by the law. They have dismissed the OP's DH unfairly and he is owed money. He should have obtained advice from ACAS as mentioned below, and could have gone to the meeting armed with full information and a letter to give them.

Thank you for your comments. I am CIPD L7 qualified but I don’t have any actual legal training, I have a fair but definitely non expert level of understanding. We didn’t contact ACAS as actually not a huge fan, but we have taken legal advice from an employment lawyer and a robust letter has been sent.

Theyre quoting SOSR as their reason for dismissal, not redundancy. Which is a fair reason and exactly what I’d be advising them to argue in the case of an expiry of an FTC.

Then I do hope you’re not an employment lawyer. You seem to know nothing about FTCs or redundancy.

I remember when the law on FTCs and redundancy changed. I was a trainee. I’m now almost 25 years PQE..

I’m surprised that’s your position. Lots of employers won’t pay redundancy on expiry of a fixed term.