Temporary contract query

sangie595

Geordiewanderer wrote: »

I've a similar thing coming up in my present job......local authority temp contract. It's a seasonal post but myself and another colleague have had the contract extended every time.....the new contract will start the 1st April for summer seasonal work but when we received the current contract its end date is mid March. It's well known that they do this to ensure they break employees service as if it was continued again we would have two years service and then be entitled to more employment rights such as redundancy, unfair dismissal etc. This is obviously unlawful (I've looked up various legislation and tribunal cases), and against their official policy but discussing it with the manager she is saying she doesn't know if the budget will be there to employ us. But they always take on extra seasonal staff in addition to us in summer anyway!


I've no doubt I will be employed again in April doing the same job but obviously my service will be broken, and I will also drop salary to the basic level as it increases slightly every year.....

So if you can prove it is unlawful - do it! Something so "obviously" unlawful will be easy for you to show.

sangie595

Soldierearth54 wrote: »

The biggest sufferers of my post no longer existing are the vulnerable children that will either lose a service or have a reduction.

My colleagues will likely pick up some work but it has always been difficult to quantify how many cases each worker should have therefore I'm not sure that argument can go anywhere.

There would be no other agency picking up the work. The council I work for would just dilute it into their system.

Real funding comes from budget reserves although I doubt this is used transparently as a colleague who started at same time as me just recently had their contract extended by 6 months to do the same job.

Management don't seem to care about structured handover. I've had to instigate these conversations and have been left to deal with it as I see fit in terms of how and when I tell the children and families.

Real funding comes from mainstream budgets, not reserves. if the funding is not mainstream, then it is an optional extra. No matter how valuable it is to clients. Or even to the Council and its Members. Mainstream budgets support the council's core business, and that includes the things that they must provide.

Of course, the Council can't increase it's core budget because they aren't allowed to. But the citizens can decide that they want to increase their Council Tax payments to increase the core budget and keep the services at risk. There will be another thread or two about that option somewhere else - slagging off Council's who would like to do just that.

The people who need such social services are the least likely to have any real voice when it comes to the cuts. There are other cuts possible. Like stopping sweeping the roads and pavements daily in the leafy suburbs. But try that if you want to see a real backlash. My local Council tried to cut ten loss making community centres that were generating a loss of more than £1.5 million this year. The reason they cost this much was because every time the Council tried to introduce charges for their hire, there was a backlash. The result? Five, in the most deprived neighbourhoods, are shut. The five in commuter villages where 90% of local people can barely afford to visit, never mind live - well they are "essential community services". It wasn't the Council who wanted that result - it was the vicious campaign waged by local wealthy people who wanted to continue using them for cut-price childcare subsidised by those who can least afford it. As a result they have cut-price childcare (managed by their own locally elected "charities") subsidised by the local people, giving them full-time pre-school care at less than £10 per half day. A childcare place in the inner city, providing care to low waged families and run by the private sector, costs 2.5 times that!

getmore4less

Geordiewanderer wrote: »

the new contract will start the 1st April for summer seasonal work but when we received the current contract its end date is mid March. It's well known that they do this to ensure they break employees service as if it was continued again we would have two years service....

How long has this been going on?
This year might be the time to take a stand at end of contract.