EAT FIXED TERM REGULATIONS
Fixed term contracts
An employee on a fixed term contract applied to the Employment Tribunal for a declaration that she was permanently employed.
She relied on previous periods of service under earlier fixed term contracts as meeting the qualifying period under Regulation 8 of the Fixed Term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002.
The employer responded that the previous periods could not count as they fell within the exclusion from the regulations of certain types of employment under Government schemes as contained in Regulation 18.
The Employment Tribunal Judge held that as Regulation 18 provided that the Regulations did not apply to employments of the type described in Regulation 18, such periods of employment could not be used to accumulate the qualifying period.
Appeal allowed.
On a true construction, Regulation 18 was concerned only to exclude the application of the regulations to employees presently employed under a contract to which that regulation applied.
The employee’s current contract was not caught by Regulation 18 and nothing in Regulation 8 disqualified the employee from relying on past employment which would have been within Regulation 18.
Judges:
Luba QC
Citations:
[2012] UKEAT 0397 – 11 – 0305
Links:
Statutes:
Fixed Term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002 18
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 31 October 2022; Ref: scu.459907