The summer months can bring an increase in demand for many businesses. Whilst this is a benefit for their profit margins, it may be too much work to contend with for their normal workforce. Many employers consider offering temporary contracts to new hires is an easy solution for this problem, however, this area of law is easy to get wrong and can lead to expensive mistakes for your clients.
Although they are referring to these workers as “temporary workers”, it is likely that these will be fixed term employees. These are individuals who work for a specified period of time or until a specific task has been completed or specific event has occurred. In this case, your client is employing them to get through a busy period of time in the business so the contract will come to an end at the end of this period.
All employees, regardless of whether they are fixed term or not, should be given a statement of main terms of employment. Although the legal entitlement to receive this documents only kicks in when the employee reaches one month’s service, this document lets the employee know where they stand and reduces the risk of confusion over the rules at work. If the employee will stay with you for over one month, they should receive this statement within two months of the start of their employment.
The statement should include the end date of the contract. This is vital on a fixed term contract as it will be this date when their contract will terminate. The remaining terms are the same as those which are included in the normal permanent employee statement including details of the start date, place of work, pay details, annual leave, etc. Fixed term staff are protected against less favourable treatment because they are fixed term. This means their pay, and other terms should be on the same basis as comparable permanent members of staff.
Your clients can choose to employ full-time staff, on a permanent basis, and simply terminate this relationship when the busy period has passed. The normal open-ended statement of main terms should be given to the employee. When looking to end their employment after summer, the employer needs to give the correct statutory or contractual notice to dismiss them. Failing to give the correct notice could lead to a claim for breach of contract.
