The University of Sheffield
Human Resources

Supporting Information for Managers on the use of Fixed Term Contracts

The following information is intended to provide additional guidance to Heads of Departments, Principal Investigators or any managers of staff who are employed on Fixed Term Contracts (FTCs). These pages should be read in conjunction with the University Guidelines and Criteria for the use of Fixed Term Contracts.

The information has been updated to provide greater clarity surrounding the issue of staff who have four or more years´ continuous service on successive FTCs.

The following areas are covered:

  1. Justifying the use of Fixed Term Contracts
  2. The Four Year Review
  3. The Consultation Procedure
  4. Individual Consultation
  5. Redundancy

1. Justifying the use of a Fixed Term Contract

There are only certain circumstances when it is appropriate to employ staff on FTCs. There are also legal requirements to consider to ensure that staff who are employed on FTC are not treated less favourably than those with open-ended contracts. This is set out in the Fixed Term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002 (´The Regulations`). In response to this legislation the University has developed Guidelines and Criteria for the use of Fixed Term Contracts, which should be read in conjunction with these pages.

As a general rule staff within the University will be employed through open-ended contracts unless there is a legitimate reason why a FTC should be used instead. The appointment of staff onto a FTC must therefore be objectively justified using one or more of the following five criteria:

  1. the post requires specialist expertise or recent experience, or input from specialist practitioners, in the short-term, that is not already available within the institution.
  2. to cover staff absence as appropriate, such as maternity and adoptive leave, long-term sickness, sabbatical leave etc.
  3. the contract is to provide cover for secondments or career development opportunities.
  4. where the student or other business demand can be clearly demonstrated as particularly uncertain, over and above that of generally accepted fluctuations over time.
  5. where the post is funded by a temporary funding source* for which a date has been identified when, with significant certainty, it is believed that the funding will cease.

* Temporary funding for the purpose of applying these guidelines includes the continuation of funding from bodies such as the Research Councils, time-limited earmarked HEFCE funding (unless rolled into HEFCE Block Recurrent Grant), fellowships and endowments (except where renewal of the same post-holder is proposed). In order to qualify as temporary funding a confirmed end date must be contractually identified.

Where posts are funded by HEFCE Block Recurrent Grants or by overheads from Research Council funding the use of a FTC may not be justified on the basis of funding.

The same criteria will be applied in assessing request to extend or renew FTCs unless the member of staff has four years´ continuous service in which they will be subject to a 4 Year Review (see section 3).

At any stage during a member of staff´s employment on a FTC the circumstances may change so that the objective justification is no longer valid, in which case the department may request that the contract be made open ended. This does not have to wait until the current contract is due to expire. Applications to transfer staff onto open-ended contracts should be made using form HUR/CC.

If a department feels that a FTC is still appropriate, even when none of the five criteria apply then advice should be sought from the Department of Human Resources who will provide a judgement.

2. The Four Year Review

All staff with four or more years continuous service on successive FTCs must be considered for transfer onto an open ended contract. This review need not be conducted immediately on acquiring four years´ continuous service but should be performed at each request to extend or renew a FTC thereafter. It may still be possible for a FTC to be extended or renewed beyond four years, but the criteria against which such requests are judged are more tightly defined.

Requests to extend or renew an FTC where the member of staff has 4 or more years continuous service will only be approved where one or more of the following criteria are met:

The application of these more rigorous criteria rule out the use of FTCs to cover periods of staff absence, to provide specialist skills in the short term or due to uncertain business demand. It is anticipated therefore that in the majority of cases, FTCs will only be permitted beyond 4 years in circumstances where the work being done will cease at a date which is known, or the work is dependent on external funds which are due to end and will not be extended or replaced from other sources.

Under The Regulations staff employed on FTCs have the right to request confirmation that they have been transferred onto an open-ended contract or a written explanation as to why not. This must be provided by the Head of Department within 21 days of receiving a written request. Heads of Departments should consult with their customary HR Adviser before providing a response.

3. The consultation procedure

All departments employing staff on FTCs will be required to participate in the FTC Consultation Procedure to ensure that the University complies with its contractual notice periods and external legislation governing dismissals (e.g. redundancy) and the use of FTCs. The procedure is managed by the Department of Human Resources, but depends for its success upon input the timely responses from departments. In addition departments must carry out a process of individual consultation with their FTC staff to ensure they are fully informed of developments surrounding the future of their contract, and where applicable, the potential for redundancy.

a. On a monthly basis departments will receive Form A - Departmental FTC Monitoring Form. This will identify those staff who are FTCs which are due to expire within the next five months. The form should be completed by departments to indicate the future intention for each individual´s contract.

b. On receipt of the Form A the Head of Department (or delegate) should consider whether each individual´s contract should be extended, come to an end or be transferred to open-ended. In line with current legislation individual consultation should begin with all staff whose contracts have the potential to expire. Details of the 3-stage individual consultation process are set out below at section 4.

c. Form A should be completed along with the Form B - Request to Extend Staff on FTC (if appropriate). The codes to be used for completion can be found in the Form A and B Guidance Notes. Form A should be competed and returned to the Department of Human Resources within 10 days of receipt. Form B should be completed in triplicate and distributed as follows:

  1. Department of Finance for funding approval
  2. Department of Human Resources
  3. Retained in departmental records

d. Department of Finance will send approved forms to Human Resources.

e. On receipt of Form A the Department of Human Resources will carry out the appropriate activity:

  1. In cases where it has been confirmed that further funding is not available, check that the legal requirements regarding dismissal for reason of redundancy have been complied with, contact the relevant individuals, in writing, with notification of the expiry of their FTC, inform them of the University's Redeployment and Redundancy Policies and take the necessary administrative action to ensure that payment/employment ceases on the specified date. Depending on the option selected by the individual, Personnel Services will contact them with further details.
  2. In cases where no funding has been confirmed but attempts to secure additional funding are continuing, contact the relevant individuals alerting them to the possibility that their FTC may expire and that they are formally at risk of redundancy and inform them of the University's Redeployment and Redundancy Policies.
  3. Where funding has been confirmed by the funding body, await receipt of the Form B from the Department of Finance, check that the continuation of the contract on a fixed term basis may be objectively justified and extend the
    contract as instructed.

In the absence of an authorised Form A and/or Form Bs, all individuals whose contracts are due to expire within three months will be notified that further information is being sought by the Department of Human Resources - Personnel Services and that they are formally at risk of redundancy.

Please note that late submission of Form As and Form Bs may result in individuals being incorrectly notified that their contract will expire or individuals being excluded from the payroll.

4. Individual consultation

Individual consultation must begin for all staff who appear on the Form A, regardless of the expected outcome.

Stage 1

Four months prior to expiry of an FTC, the Head of Department or delegate should write to the individual to invite them to a meeting to discuss their FTC. The individual should be informed that they are entitled to be accompanied to the meeting by a trade union representative or work colleague.

Stage 2

During the meeting the individual must be informed of the following (as appropriate):

  1. that they are formally at risk of redundancy should the FTC not be extended and provide confirmation of the contract end date
  2. whether an extension or extra funding is available/being sought
  3. the reasons why further work/funding is not available
  4. whether any alternative work is available within the department
  5. details of the University’s Redeployment and Redundancy Policies
  6. their right of appeal (required by legislation)

For staff whose contract will or is likely to expire, a record of the meeting should be taken using Form FTC/Consult.

In the event that the individual should exercise their right to request a written statement to justify less favourable treatment or to justify non-transfer to an open-ended contract, or decides to appeal against dismissal by redundancy, this record will be required. A copy of this document should also be sent to the Department of Human Resources alongside the Form A.

Stage 3

Individuals whose contract will not be extended must be informed that they have a right of appeal against the decision. Appeals against redundancy should be made to the Director of Human Resource Management.

5. Redundancy

Full details of the University´s Redundancy Policy can be found on the Human Resources webpages.

When further funding is not available to extend or renew a FTC then the member of staff will be dismissed on the grounds of redundancy. Staff with 2 or more years continuous service will be entitled to receive a Statutory Redundancy Payment (SRP). Staff with less than 2 years continuous service may be entitled to either an enhanced redundancy payment under the University´s preferential scheme, or may make use of the redeployment service. Further information is available from the relevant webpages.

Staff who are transferred from a FTC onto an open-ended contract will be covered by the University´s Redundancy Policy. Transfer to an open-ended contract does not therefore provide protection from redundancy.

Content last updated: 1 November 2006