Moving onto a “standard” contract

Your contract must be considered permanent by law after 4 years continuous service with the same employer. This is a UK law. https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/3567/Fixed-term-regulations-requesting-confirmation-of-permanence 

At St Andrews, you only need 3 years continuous service: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/policy/staff-employee-relations-contract-management/policy-on-the-use-of-fixed-term-and-standard-contracts.pdf

To move onto a standard contract, Write to Louise Milne in HR (lm80) by adapting the template letter from the UCU website (linked above). Copy in ucu@st-andrews.ac.uk.

What does it actually mean to be on a standard rather than fixed-term contract?

• The main difference is just in the wording you can use for external purposes, e.g. mortgage, rental, and visa/settlement applications.

• If your position is tied to a grant, you are still at risk of being made redundant when your grant runs out.

• You are supposed to get a longer notice period before redundancy.

Redundancy and Redeployment

Know your rights!

Read the relevant policies:

https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/policy/Staff-Employee-relations-Redundancy/conducting-redundancy-consultation-meetings-for-the-expiry-of-fixed-term-contracts.pdf

https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/policy/staff-employee-relations-redeployment/redeployment-policy.pdf

https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/policy/staff-employee-relations-redundancy/ftc-guidance-briefing-paper-for-the-pi.pdf

Note, in particular:

“The expiry of external funding is not a reason for dismissal in itself. The [redundancy] meeting should also cover ways of avoiding the redundancy by seeking the views of the employee such as: whether they wish to be considered for redeployment to another post elsewhere within the University (the employee is entitled to join the University’s Redeployment Register where they will be informed of suitable vacancies prior to them being advertised); suitable alternative employment/future grants in pipeline; career and CV development for employee; the right of appeal.”

“If the employee has two years’ service at the expiry date of the fixed term contract and the University has been unable to source an alternative position for them, then they will be entitled to a statutory redundancy payment payable from the School’s (or Unit’s although this is less common) salary budget.”