Fixed Term Employment Contract

This Fixed Term Employment Contract is designed to be applicable to a variety of different jobs where the employee is taken on for a defined or fixed term.

Employers must provide workers and employees with a written statement of their main terms and conditions of employment and this is often known as a Standard Form Section One Statement.

This Contract covers the requirements of a Standard Form Section One Statement. This contract complies with these requirements and must be provided to the employee or worker by day one of employment. 

Fixed term employees have the same minimum rights as permanent workers and are protected by the Fixed-Term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002. Any clause or agreement which purports to waive rights regarding unfair dismissal or redundancy is void.

This contract includes a clause which entitles the employer to end the fixed term contract early whilst avoiding a potential claim for damages equivalent to the pay and benefits the fixed term worker would have received up to the time the contract was due to terminate.

Fixed term contracts end automatically when they reach the agreed end date. However, if the contract isn’t renewed, this is considered as a dismissal and an employee with at least two years’ service will be able (potentially) to bring an unfair dismissal claim. For the dismissal to be fair, it will need to be for one of the potentially fair reasons:

• Capability
• Misconduct
• Redundancy
• Statutory bar
• Some Other Substantial Reason (SOSR)

If the contract is not renewed because the company needs fewer employees to do work of a particular kind or, say, the company is closing down, then redundancy is likely to apply. See the Redundancy suite of documents. If the employee is replacing an employee who is absent on, say, maternity or sick leave and the dismissal is in order to allow that person to return to work, SOSR is likely to apply. See the SOSR suite of documents.

This Fixed Term Employment Contract contains the following clauses: 

1. General 
2. Duties and Job Title 
3. Fixed Term 
4. Date of Commencement / Date of Continuous Employment 
5. Hours of Work 
6. Place of Work 
7. Work outside the UK 
8. Remuneration and Benefits 
9. Collective Agreements 
10. Holidays 
11. Other paid leave 
12. Training 
13. Sickness Absence 
14. Maternity and Paternity Rights 
15. Pension 
16. Non-Compulsory Retirement 
17. Mobility 
18. Grievance Procedure 
19. Disciplinary Procedure 
20. Staff Handbook and Employment Policies 
21. Confidential Information 
22. Data Protection 
23. Changes to Terms and Conditions of Employment 
24. Severability 
25. Governing Law 
26. Right to Work in the UK

This Employment Contract does not contain Restraint of Trade or Restrictions on Employment or Intellectual Property clauses. For contract or agreement precedents containing these clauses, please see the Directors Employment Agreement or Senior/Management Employment Contract in the related document links below.

Clauses with optional and alternative phrases

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