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| A manifesto for Fixed
Term staff: |
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| ‘Fixed
term’ staff deserve security and equality
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For decades, fixed term staff have
been second-class citizens in Higher Education.
When your contract ended, your employer had little
real responsibility to find you work.
You could be out - and that was that.
Staff were divided, right down the middle. Permanent
employees were secure. Fixed term staff were disposable.
Many departments tried to be fair. But, eventually,
when money was short, out went the fixed term
employees. Teaching assistants could be treated
as second-class. Contract research staff might
spend their lives wondering where their next grant
would come from.
Now the law has changed. The
Fixed Term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable
Treatment) Regulations 2002 state that |
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fixed term staff can no longer waive their rights
to redundancy (i.e. the ending of a fixed term contract
should be treated as any other redundancy), |
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fixed term staff may not be discriminated against,
and |
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permanent contracts should be the norm and the
use of successive fixed term contracts must be ‘objectively
justified’. |
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law says that Part Time workers have the same
rights as Full Time staff, paid in proportion
to their hours. As a result, hourly-paid staff
have been given pro-rata contracts. |
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What does this mean
for UCL staff? |
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| 1. |
Equality. The university can no longer
treat fixed term employees differently from permanent
staff without justification. For example, the offer
of a new contract may not be used as a kind of renewed
probation. Concerns about performance must be raised
through the capability
procedure for all staff - not by denying a new
contract to an employee. |
| 2. |
Redundancy rights. The end of a contract
or post does not justify sacking a particular
employee.
Your employer is UCL - not the department, research
group or funding body. The employer must demonstrate
that the duties have ended and that the individual
member of staff has been fairly selected for redundancy.
You have a right to trade union representation (if
you join the union) and to appeal against the redundancy
decision. If all else fails, you can go to an Employment
Tribunal to challenge the decision. |
| 3. |
Avoiding redundancy. All employers have
a legal responsibility to avoid redundancy
of all their staff, including ‘fixed term’
staff.
This means that an employer must be able to demonstrate
that the redundancy could not be avoided by moving
the member of staff into a new post. Before externally
advertising a post, recruitment managers must check
a database and confirm that no existing ‘at
risk’ UCL staff satisfy the requirements for
the post. |
| 4. |
Open ended contracts and ‘end date’
clauses. The law only recognises two kinds of
contract, fixed term and permanent. UCL is moving
the vast majority of fixed term staff onto what
they call ‘open ended’ contracts. Most
of these contain clauses which either state an end
date for funding or a more general statement.
However a funding end date in a contract does not
justify a redundancy. The law cannot be dodged by
euphemism. They can only be used to remind management
to plan to avoid redundancy by applying for
funding and developing new posts. It is doubtful
whether such statements have a place in a contract
of employment at all. |
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The problem remains |
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65% of UCL staff are on fixed term contracts
– becoming reclassified as ‘open ended’
with funding end dates. Universities have had
decades of poor practice. Only the catering trade
has a higher proportion of temporary staff!
Many managers still believe that “if you
have a fixed term contract you cannot expect to
remain employed”. Although the legal situation
has changed, unless we defend each other there
is no guarantee that ex- ‘fixed term’
staff will be treated any better in practice.
We will have to fight for our rights. |
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Join your union |
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The UCL 6%
cuts programme is leading to job losses. If
professors leave, the research staff they manage
may be simply cut adrift. Administrative and support
posts are being cut. In this divisive and fearful
atmosphere, certain staff, including ‘fixed
term’ staff, may be targeted because they
are thought to be without rights.
All staff, whether permanent or fixed term, should
join their trade union. We need to get organised
to defend jobs. No one is simply dispensable.
UCU is the union for all researchers, lecturers,
computer staff, administrators and other ‘academically
related’ staff. We are the largest trade
union with over 1600 members at UCL. Many of our
leading members are ‘fixed term’ staff.
We need to enforce good practice across UCL.
We cannot do this alone. You can be our eyes and
ears in the department. We can make sure you get
assistance. But we need your help.
Join
your union. Let's make sure no one is left
behind. |
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Frequently Asked Questions
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Research Staff - non-renewal of contracts |
| Q. |
I’m coming to the end of my research grant. We
have new grants starting soon but my supervisor wants
to advertise the posts. He says that because I wasn’t
named on the grant application, he’s perfectly entitled
to do so. Is this correct? |
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Performance allegations as a justification
for non-renewal |
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My supervisor does not want to appoint me to a new
post because he says that he has concerns about my performance.
This is the first time that he has said anything to me
formally about this. Can he do this? |
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College Teachers and contracts |
| Q. |
I was an hourly paid College Teacher who was recently
put on a pro-rata fixed term contract. The course I teach
is centrally funded and my Head of Department tells me
he expects it to continue for years to come. But I have
only been given a one-year (or less) contract. Is this
acceptable? |
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End dates |
| Q. |
What do end dates in open ended contracts mean? Am I
permanent or not? |
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Teaching assistants' rights |
| Q. |
I am interested to know whether there are any benefits
for me as a teaching assistant from the new legislation.
I am given a series of contracts Sept-June with variable,
normally pitiful, amounts of work, seemingly decided more
or less on the whim of whoever is allotting the teaching.
How does this help me? |
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| Q. |
I’m coming to the end of
my research grant. We have new grants starting soon but
my supervisor wants to advertise the posts. He says that
because I wasn’t named on the grant application,
he’s perfectly entitled to do so. Is this correct? |
| A. |
No. If someone is named on the
grant application and they are available to take on
the duties, then your PI is entitled to directly appoint
them to the project. (This may have been a condition
of the grant funding body).
But the converse is not true. PIs are only
entitled to advertise unfilled posts once the list of
internal ‘at risk’ candidates has been exhausted.
This is because the responsibility is on the employer
to show why your impending redundancy cannot be avoided
by redeployment.
If you are within the last three months of your
funding and are therefore deemed to be at risk of
redundancy, your supervisor will know this. Provided
that your current transferrable skills are such that
you could be placed in any new post (including one in
your current research group) with a modicum of training,
you are entitled to an interview for that post before
it is advertised. If, following this interview, you
are not appointed, then you are entitled to a valid
explanation as to why. |
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| Q. |
My supervisor does not want to
appoint me to a new post because he says that he has concerns
about my performance. This is the first time that he has
said anything to me formally about this. Can he do this? |
| A. |
No. The disciplinary and capability
procedures must be applied equally to all staff.
If your supervisor has concerns about your performance,
time keeping or attendance he must use the appropriate
formal procedure. He cannot invoke concerns that were
not previously raised in order to deny you the right
of continuing employment. This would constitute a serious
breach of the Fixed
Term Employees Regulations. |
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| Q. |
I was an hourly paid College Teacher
who was recently put on a pro-rata fixed term contract.
The course I teach is centrally funded and my Head of
Department tells me he expects it to continue for years
to come. But I have only been given a one-year (or less)
contract. Is this acceptable? |
| A. |
Almost certainly not. Since the
duties are likely to continue the contract is likely
to recur. The ending of any post is a redundancy.
To put it simply, offering a fixed term contract is
to state, in advance, that there is a known risk that
the duties will end at a particular date, i.e. to predict
the redundancy of a post. However, this is not always
the same as stating that the particular staff
member would be made redundant.
UCL’s guidance
on contracts specifies that fixed term contracts
are to be used where the duties are explicitly known
to end at a given point - either because they cover
for the work of another (sabbatical leave, maternity
leave) or because they are short-term (9 months or less)
and well-defined. If duties are likely to recur next
year, only an open ended contract is appropriate.
If duties are directly comparable with those of other
colleagues, and normal staff development would mean
that duties might evolve, then it is not reasonable
or fair to suggest that your post could be terminated
rather than any other colleague on a permanent contract.
In this situation an end date should definitely not
be included in the contract.
See also: part
time workers' rights
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| Q. |
What do these end dates in open
ended contracts mean? Am I permanent or not? |
| A. |
There is some confusion at the moment
regarding the use of end dates in contracts.
These dates should have no bearing on your legal
rights. UCL treats the ending of Fixed Funding as
grounds for selection for redundancy
(calling a Termination Meeting). There is a real danger
that funding end dates are code for “long-term
fixed-term contract” and determines how staff
are treated. For this reason we do not believe that
this statement should be included in the contract letter.
The law only recognises two kinds of contract - fixed
term and permanent. UCL’s use of the phrase ‘open
ended’ for ‘permanent’ may remind
us of own mortality, but in a technical sense these
are permanent contracts. Any permanent contract may
be ended by a redundancy.
The UK Regulations are meant to enact into law EU
Directive 1999/70/EC on fixed term contracts. The
Principle of non-discrimination (clause 4) says
that less favourable treatment of staff (including selection
for redundancy) should not take place "soley because
they have a fixed-term contract or relation."
The persistence of end dates could represent a relationship,
even if it is not part of the contract. Moreover
clause 3 (1) says:
- For the purpose of this agreement the term "fixed-term
worker" means a person having an employment contract
or relationship entered into directly between an employer
and a worker where the end of the employment contract
or relationship is determined by objective conditions
such as reaching a specific date, completing a specific
task, or the occurrence of a specific event.
Therefore the use of funding end dates to select a
staff member for redundancy would bring the staff member
back into the remit of the Fixed
Term Employees Regulations 2002, even if UCL denied
that s/he had a Fixed Term contract.
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| Q. |
I am interested to know whether
there are any benefits for me as a teaching assistant
from the new legislation. I am given a series of contracts
Sept-June with variable, normally pitiful, amounts of
work, seemingly decided more or less on the whim of whoever
is allotting the teaching. How does this help me? |
| A. |
There are benefits, but the main difficulty
is in enforcing them (which is why all union members
should support our campaign for best practice).
There are two principal gains.
| 1. |
Once in post, it is harder for an employer to
dismiss a staff member with a fixed term contract.
This is because it is a redundancy, and redundancies
must be ‘fairly selected’. You can also
ask for redeployment. The employer could be challenged
to demonstrate that your managers are being fair
in the allocation of duties, and you should be accorded
the same rights as any other staff member (e.g.,
to attend staff meetings, etc). |
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| 2. |
You should be paid a proper pro-rata rate based
on your working hours (not contact hours) and (just
like any other full time employee) have preparation
time and staff development time (i.e., time to write
lectures, etc.) paid for as part of your contracted
hours. If you find that you are working more hours
than you are paid for, then this should be challenged
(tip: keep a diary). The union can give you support
and advice on all of these points. |
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 See
also
To join UCL UCU’s Fixed Term Staff Group, click here.
A national email list for fixed
term staff is run from Leeds.
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| These pages are the responsibility
of UCL UCU. This page was last updated on
8 August, 2012 |
