Renewal of fixed term contract with reduced salary - advice please

ar1_2

Firstly apologies if these gets a bit rambly but there's a little bit of a story to tell.

- I have worked for a Goverment organisation for just over 3.5 years on a series of fixed-term contracts.

- the latest contract runs out in the next few weeks and recently I had my meeting with HR to discuss my future

- late last year the glacially slow Job Evaluation (JE) process finally caught up with me and I was evaluated.

- Rules for JE were published by HR and they confirm if your salary is reduced you are frozen for 3 years until you either go onto the new lower grade or your new grade has caught up with the position you were frozen at

At the HR meeting I was informed that I was to be offered a 6 month extension (:D) but due to JE the new contract would be at a significantly reduced pay rate - 13% off (:mad:). That's ok I though as I'm only going to be frozen and there's no pay rises at the moment anyway but No - HR have stated that due to it being a fixed term contract then the normal JE rules don't apply. I was offered the choice between this reduced contract and not renewing and getting serverance pay (which I didn't really expect based on being on a fixed-term contract).

I have checked and rechecked the JE docuementation and there is no mention of fixed-term contract staff not have the same protection to be frozen.

My two questions are:

1. Does the offer of severance pay imply that I have some degree of protection to my T&Cs even though I am on a fixed-term contract?

2. Does the lack of any specific mention of fixed-term staff being treated any differant in the JE guidelines published by HR mean that these rules should apply to all not just permanent staff as they're claiming?

Any advice would be gratefully received.

SarEl

ar1 wrote: »

1. Does the offer of severance pay imply that I have some degree of protection to my T&Cs even though I am on a fixed-term contract? No. If a fixed term contract comes to and end and you have worked on that contract continuously for more than two years you are redundant and get redundancy pay. This applies to everyone. So this offer is actually what they are obliged to do in law and has no special meaning.

2. Does the lack of any specific mention of fixed-term staff being treated any differant in the JE guidelines published by HR mean that these rules should apply to all not just permanent staff as they're claiming? I would say not. The contract has come to an end. They are offering a new contract for a further six months, but that contract is on the new terms. I do not see that in law this is a detriment because you are on a fixed term contract - the same would apply to an existing and permanant member of staff who moved from one job to another (i.e. moved contractual terms).
.

Sorry - based on what you have said I think you have little legal argument here.

ar1_2

SarEl wrote: »

Sorry - based on what you have said I think you have little legal argument here.

I'd feared that this might be the case, at least I've still got a job!