Notice period for Temporary Employment.

Avoriaz

Hi all, I hope this is the correct forum for this question. I apologise for its length.

What notice period is required in law for temporary employment?

My wife was asked to work for ABC company (not their real name, they are a major multinational company) in the UK in a temporary role for 5 months because a permanent employee was going into hospital for a hip replacement operation.

She started there on Monday and spent the week with the permanent employee learning the job. Late on Friday afternoon she was told that the operation had been postponed and that therefore she was no longer required and was told not to return to the offices on Monday.

I think she is entitled to a notice period and should be paid in lieu if they do not require her to work on.

As her contract required her to give ABC two weeks notice, I think she is entitled to at least two weeks notice from them in turn.

Is there any employment legislation that covers this?

If ABC refuse to pay for any notice period, what options does she have? Employment tribunal or County Court summons etc?

Here is some background detail.

She has been working in a number of long term but temporary positions for some years, including an 18 month spell at ABC company a few years ago. She is not swapping from job to job every few weeks. Her last 3 jobs have been about 2 years, 18 months and two years with three different companies.

She is employed by an Employment Agency (EA) who have placed her in those last three jobs. For this latest job, ABC approached her directly because she was recommended by the department where she had worked for 18 months a few years ago. However she told them that contractually she must be employed via EA as EA had made the original introduction. ABC accepted that and contracts with EA, ABC and my wife were signed.

This contract does not mention any notice period from ABC to my wife, though it does state that she must give two weeks notice if she wants to quit.

A further question might be whether any claim would be against EA, her employer, rather than ABC and that EA should pay her and EA should chase ABC for the money.

Please note that the company are not refusing to pay her for the five days work she has done, they are just refusing to pay for any notice period.

Thank you for reading all that. If you have any constructive help, advice or comments I would be grateful.

Thanks

zzzLazyDaisy

Sorry, I am confused.

Is she employed by the company or by an agency?

As she appears to have a contract of employment with the company, I'm assuming she is employed by the company.

Is this a Fixed Term Contract (ie for a defined period of time, and stated to end on a given date) or is it a temporary contract that was expected to last 5 months, but not guaranteed to?

Assuming she is in fact employed by the company on a temporary contract which could be ended at any time, then in the absence of a notice clause in the contract, statutory notice is payable, which in this case is nothing, as you have to have a minimum of one month's service to qualify for statutory notice.

EDIT - on re-reading the post it appears that she is employed by the agency? In that case there is no co9ntractual relationship between her and the company she was working for, and she must take the matter up with the agency.

Is she actually an employee of the agency, in law, or is she self employed?

If she is an employee, what happens when she is between jobs - does she remain an employee, or does she cease to be an employee until such time as another job becomes available?

These are not academic questions - UK employment law applies only to employees who work under a contract of employment. People who are self-employed or sub-contractors, must look to the contract governing the agreement.

lesley1960

There is no notice period for workers who are employed as temps through an agency as far as I know

staffie1

She is employed by the agency (EA).
There is no statutory min notice period for temporary workers - the company using the service (ABC in this case) can let you go whenever they want (unless there is something written into the contract to the contrary) without being liable for unfair dismissal or redundancy pay.