Hi

All temporary contracts renewed or extended with more than 4 years service, from 1 July 2002, need to be justified, or transfer to an open-ended contract automatically takes place.

For a contract to remain temporary you must give a justifiable objective reason to continue as a fixed-term/temporary contract.

This isn’t to terminate employees on temporary contracts as they will automatically transfer to permanent unless there is an exceptional reason not to. Of course, the expiry of a fixed term contract without its renewal under the same contract is a dismissal.

I have searched for case law to clarify this and can find none, does anyone have examples of sound business reasons that could be used to let a contract remain as temporary?

Alex

Alex Hughes