We are entering into a busy summer period in one of our departments and are employing some people on short fixed-term contracts. This has brought up two questions:

1. I have read that under common law the expiry of a fixed-term contract is not dismissal, but under the ERA it is. This is a little confusing when drawing up fixed-term contracts which will expire on a certain date. Apart from stating clearly in the contract that it will expire, does anyone have any idiot-proof ways to ensure we don’t unwittingly dismiss wrongly?

2. To give a fixed-term employee with a 4-month contract equal treatment with other employees we should increase their contractual notice period to 1 month after 3 months’ service (normally probation length but for a 4-month contract 3 months’ probation seems a little excessive).

However I want to avoid a situation where someone gets to, say, 2 days before their contract expiry date then hands in their notice and we have to pay them a month’s notice. Can we just say about the month’s notice period that “this will not have the effect of extending your contract beyond its expiry date solely to take account of such notice period” or similar?

Thanks

Clare
Clare Parkholm