Ending of fixed-term contracts?

From 6 April 2013, the government has changed the law on collective consultation in the context of the expiry and non-renewal of fixed-term contracts, to ignore dismissals resulting from the expiry and non-renewal of fixed-term contracts when working out whether 20 or more redundancy dismissals have been proposed in a 90-day period. The change has major implications, particularly in the higher education sector, where universities make extensive use of fixed-term contracts.

The ending and non-renewal of a fixed-term contract no longer counts as a dismissal for the purposes of the duty to consult collectively, unless the employer is proposing to end a fixed-term contract prematurely — i.e. before its expiry date — for a reason related to redundancy. A reason related to redundancy is one that does not relate to the individual concerned.

This change was made under the Trade Union and Labour Relations Consolidation Act 1992 (Amendment) Order 2013. It reverses an important gain by higher education union UCU in Lancaster University v UCU [2010] UKEAT/0278/10/2710.