The EAT considered the status of part time lecturers of courses at colleges of higher education. They were employed on fixed term contracts for a term at a time. The court was asked whether, if a contract was not renewed, that amounted to a dismissal.
Held: The employees’ appeals succeeded. The claimants had each been dismissed, and had been so dismissed for redundancy. In the first case, the claimant continued work for the defendant after the nominal expiry of her employment contract so as to help prepare for the next academic year. The effect of Ford was that a teacher employed in successive years under fixed term contracts, with periods of unemployment during vacations, has continuous employment for the purposes of claiming unfair dismissal and redundancy payments.
Mummery P
[1996] UKEAT 423 – 95 – 0403
Bailii
Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978 Sch 13 para 9(1)
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Ford v Warwickshire County Council HL 1983
In deciding whether in the case of employment under a series of short contracts the intervals between the contracts amount to temporary cessation of work, one must look back from the date of termination of the employment over the whole period during . .
Cited – Nottinghamshire County Council v Lee CA 1980
In the case of a fixed term contract which expired and had not been renewed: ‘Why was not the employee’s contract renewed?’ If the answer was, in the case of a teacher, that there was no more work for him to do and the requirements of the school or . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Employment, Education
Updated: 01 January 2022; Ref: scu.208282