Employers want me to sign a temporary contract

zzzLazyDaisy

The employer can change the T&C's of the contract and if you continue to work under the contract without expressly objecting to the offending clause(s) then you are deemed by your conduct to have accepted the contract.

BUT BUT BUT

They cannot remove your legal rights by altering the contract.

OP has 4 yrs service. They can call the contract permanent, temporary or whatever they like. The fact remains that OP has continuous employment that predates April 2012, so after 12 months service he has full protection under UK employment legislation.

I would do as another poster has suggested and send the contract back pointing out that there has been an error and you are infact a permanent employee with 4 yrs service.

Savvy_Sue

Meanwhile, I don't think anyone's mentioned that while you're haggling over the terms of any changes, you can state that you are continuing to work 'under protest' or something like that, which indicates that you have NOT accepted the new terms, at least not yet ...