Law at work 2021 - the trade union guide to employment law (July 2021)

Chapter 11

Ending of fixed-term contracts

[ch 11: pages 426-427]

Dismissals that result from the expiry and non-renewal of fixed-term contracts are not counted when calculating whether 20 or more redundancy dismissals have been proposed in a 90-day period. This is because the expiry of a fixed-term contract is a reason related to the individual and not, for example, a need to change the business, and dismissal for the purpose of S.188 must be for a reason not related to the individual concerned (University and College Union v University of Stirling [2014] IRLR 287).

It is important to note that this way of counting fixed-term employment contracts for the purpose of collective consultation obligations is completely separate from the legal rights of fixed-term employees not to be unfairly dismissed or treated less favourably than their permanent colleagues in the redundancy process. The expiry at the end of its term and non-renewal of a fixed-term contract is a dismissal and can trigger redundancy rights. Fixed-term employees have these rights no matter how many are at risk of redundancy.


This information is copyright to the Labour Research Department (LRD) and may not be reproduced without the permission of the LRD.