Contracts and Dismissals
Written Employment Particulars
Contracts of employment do not have to be in writing. However, employees as well as workers must be provided with a written statement of particulars. All employees, regardless of the number of hours they work per week, are entitled to receive a written statement from their employer, within two months of starting work. The statement describes the main terms of the contract of employment. The statement must give details about the names of the employer and employee, the date when the employment began, the date on which the employee’s period of continuous employment began, job of work, holiday entitlement, sick pay, where and employee will be working and whether they might have to relocate, pension schemes, notice grievance, dismissal and disciplinary procedure and reference to any collective agreements, which affect the terms of employment. If, after the material date, there is a change in any of the employment particulars, the employer has to give to the employee a written statement containing particulars of the change.
The Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023, was intended to give workers and agency workers the right to request a predictable work pattern if they meet certain criteria regarding the minimum length of service (26 weeks) and if there is a current lack of predictability regarding their work pattern (working on zero hour contracts or fixed term contracts of less than 12 months). The worker must clearly indicate the purpose of request (to get more predictable work pattern), and they must not have requested for this more than once during the last year. However, the Act required separate commencement regulations that were never made, so it never took practical effect. It has since been repealed by the Employment Rights Act 2025 (s. 27A), which introduces stronger protections through rights to guaranteed hours, reasonable notice of shifts, and payments for short-notice shift cancellations. (Source: s. 27A, Employment Rights Act 2025; https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/36/enacted)
Source: §1-4 of Employment Rights Act (ERA), 1996
Fixed Term Contracts
FTCs are regulated by the Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations. Employees are on a fixed-term contract if they have an employment contract with the organisation they work for, which ends on a particular date or upon the completion of a specific task. There is no limitation on the maximum number of successive FTCs. A fixed-term employee shall become a permanent employee after four years of continuous employment under one or successive fixed-term contracts. However, this statutory four-year limit does not apply if employment on a fixed-term contract can be justified on objective grounds, or if the period of four years has been lengthened under a collective or workplace agreement.
Fixed-term employees remain protected mainly by the Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002, which require broadly equivalent treatment to comparable permanent staff unless any difference is objectively justified.
A fixed-term employee who has been employed on successive fixed-term contracts for four years or more will normally become permanent unless the employer can show objective justification, or a valid collective agreement displaces the default rule.
The new “reasonable” limitation in the Employment Rights Act 2025 is narrower. It applies in the guaranteed-hours regime: where an employer makes a guaranteed-hours offer by offering a new worker contract, that new contract must not be a limited-term contract unless it is reasonable for it to be offered on that basis.
Source: Regulation 8 (2 & 5) of the Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations; §27BB of the Employment Rights Act 2025
Probation Period
The ERA does not regulate the probationary period as such. However, it provides for a "qualifying period of employment" which is comparable to the probationary period insofar as employees are excluded from the protection against unfair dismissal during that period. Maximum probationary (trial) period is 24 months.
Source: §108 of the ERA amended by the Unfair Dismissal and Statement of Reasons for Dismissal (Variation of Qualifying Period) Order 2012
Termination of Employment
A fixed-term contract will normally end automatically on its agreed end date, but non-renewal is still a dismissal in law. If the employer ends the contract early, the result depends on the contract terms and minimum statutory notice rights. Employees on fixed-term contracts also have unfair dismissal and redundancy rights where the relevant qualifying conditions are met. An employee may resign by giving the contractual notice required, subject to the statutory minimum notice rules where they apply. An employer who dismisses an employee with one month or more of continuous service must normally give at least one week’s notice, rising to one week for each complete year of service up to a maximum of 12 weeks, unless the contract provides for more. A probationary period does not create a free-standing exemption from discrimination law, whistleblowing protection, notice rights, or automatically unfair dismissal rules. Employees with short service may have fewer ordinary unfair dismissal rights, but employers should still act reasonably and follow an appropriate process. Employers may dismiss for one of the potentially fair reasons recognised by statute, including conduct, capability, redundancy, breach of a statutory restriction, or some other substantial reason. Summary dismissal without notice is only appropriate where the facts justify gross misconduct and a fair procedure has been followed. Settlement agreements remain a lawful route to end employment by mutual agreement. To be valid, they must be in writing, relate to particular complaints or proceedings, and the employee or worker must receive advice from an appropriately qualified independent adviser. Where an employer wants to change contractual terms, agreement should be sought first. Dismissal and re-engagement is still possible in limited circumstances under current law, but it is high-risk and subject to the statutory Code of Practice on dismissal and re-engagement. Under the Employment Rights Act 2025, most dismissals for refusing specified contractual changes are scheduled to become automatically unfair from 1 January 2027, subject to a narrow severe-financial-difficulty defence. Redundancy dismissals must be handled fairly. Employers should consult, use fair selection criteria, consider suitable alternative employment, and pay statutory redundancy where the legal conditions are met. The weekly-pay cap for statutory redundancy remains £719 for cases where the relevant date is on or after 6 April 2025, giving a maximum statutory redundancy payment of £21,570. At present, most employees need two years’ service to claim ordinary unfair dismissal and to request written reasons for dismissal. A fixed-term employee whose contract is not renewed can request written reasons after one year’s service. Certain reasons are automatically unfair from day one, including pregnancy or maternity, taking family leave, trade union activities, whistleblowing, asserting statutory rights, health and safety activities, and participation in protected industrial action. An unfair dismissal claim must usually be lodged within three months minus one day of the effective date of termination, subject to Acas Early Conciliation. Available remedies include reinstatement, re-engagement, and compensation. The compensatory award remains capped under current law, but the cap is scheduled to be removed for dismissals from 1 January 2027, when the ordinary qualifying period is also due to fall from two years to six months. The Employment Rights Act 2025 is being commenced in stages. Relevant confirmed dates include: 18 February 2026 for stronger protection against dismissal for taking protected industrial action; 6 April 2026 for the doubling of the maximum collective-redundancy protective award from 90 to 180 days’ pay; and 1 January 2027 for the ordinary unfair-dismissal and fire-and-rehire reforms. Wider collective-redundancy threshold reform is planned for 2027 but is not yet in force. Source: §86-132 of the Employment Rights Act (ERA); The Code of Practice (Dismissal and Re-engagement) Order 2024; §25-29, 76, 77 of the Employment Rights Act, 2025
Regulations on Employment Security
- Working Time Regulations 1998 (as amended by 2009 Amendment Regulations)
- Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations [FTER], 2002 Date: 30 Jul 2002
Written Employment Particulars
Contracts of employment do not have to be in writing. However, employees as well as workers must be provided with a written statement of particulars. All employees, regardless of the number of hours they work per week, are entitled to receive a written statement from their employer, within two months of starting work. The statement describes the main terms of the contract of employment. The statement must give details about the names of the employer and employee, the date when the employment began, the date on which the employee’s period of continuous employment began, job of work, holiday entitlement, sick pay, where and employee will be working and whether they might have to relocate, pension schemes, notice grievance, dismissal and disciplinary procedure and reference to any collective agreements, which affect the terms of employment. If, after the material date, there is a change in any of the employment particulars, the employer has to give to the employee a written statement containing particulars of the change.
The Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023, was intended to give workers and agency workers the right to request a predictable work pattern if they meet certain criteria regarding the minimum length of service (26 weeks) and if there is a current lack of predictability regarding their work pattern (working on zero hour contracts or fixed term contracts of less than 12 months). The worker must clearly indicate the purpose of request (to get more predictable work pattern), and they must not have requested for this more than once during the last year. However, the Act required separate commencement regulations that were never made, so it never took practical effect. It has since been repealed by the Employment Rights Act 2025 (s. 27A), which introduces stronger protections through rights to guaranteed hours, reasonable notice of shifts, and payments for short-notice shift cancellations. (Source: s. 27A, Employment Rights Act 2025; https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/36/enacted)
Source: §1-4 of Employment Rights Act (ERA), 1996
Fixed Term Contracts
FTCs are regulated by the Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations. Employees are on a fixed-term contract if they have an employment contract with the organisation they work for, which ends on a particular date or upon the completion of a specific task. There is no limitation on the maximum number of successive FTCs. A fixed-term employee shall become a permanent employee after four years of continuous employment under one or successive fixed-term contracts. However, this statutory four-year limit does not apply if employment on a fixed-term contract can be justified on objective grounds, or if the period of four years has been lengthened under a collective or workplace agreement.
Fixed-term employees remain protected mainly by the Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002, which require broadly equivalent treatment to comparable permanent staff unless any difference is objectively justified.
A fixed-term employee who has been employed on successive fixed-term contracts for four years or more will normally become permanent unless the employer can show objective justification, or a valid collective agreement displaces the default rule.
The new “reasonable” limitation in the Employment Rights Act 2025 is narrower. It applies in the guaranteed-hours regime: where an employer makes a guaranteed-hours offer by offering a new worker contract, that new contract must not be a limited-term contract unless it is reasonable for it to be offered on that basis.
Source: Regulation 8 (2 & 5) of the Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations; §27BB of the Employment Rights Act 2025
Probation Period
The ERA does not regulate the probationary period as such. However, it provides for a "qualifying period of employment" which is comparable to the probationary period insofar as employees are excluded from the protection against unfair dismissal during that period. Maximum probationary (trial) period is 24 months.
Source: §108 of the ERA amended by the Unfair Dismissal and Statement of Reasons for Dismissal (Variation of Qualifying Period) Order 2012
Termination of Employment
A fixed-term contract will normally end automatically on its agreed end date, but non-renewal is still a dismissal in law. If the employer ends the contract early, the result depends on the contract terms and minimum statutory notice rights. Employees on fixed-term contracts also have unfair dismissal and redundancy rights where the relevant qualifying conditions are met. An employee may resign by giving the contractual notice required, subject to the statutory minimum notice rules where they apply. An employer who dismisses an employee with one month or more of continuous service must normally give at least one week’s notice, rising to one week for each complete year of service up to a maximum of 12 weeks, unless the contract provides for more. A probationary period does not create a free-standing exemption from discrimination law, whistleblowing protection, notice rights, or automatically unfair dismissal rules. Employees with short service may have fewer ordinary unfair dismissal rights, but employers should still act reasonably and follow an appropriate process. Employers may dismiss for one of the potentially fair reasons recognised by statute, including conduct, capability, redundancy, breach of a statutory restriction, or some other substantial reason. Summary dismissal without notice is only appropriate where the facts justify gross misconduct and a fair procedure has been followed. Settlement agreements remain a lawful route to end employment by mutual agreement. To be valid, they must be in writing, relate to particular complaints or proceedings, and the employee or worker must receive advice from an appropriately qualified independent adviser. Where an employer wants to change contractual terms, agreement should be sought first. Dismissal and re-engagement is still possible in limited circumstances under current law, but it is high-risk and subject to the statutory Code of Practice on dismissal and re-engagement. Under the Employment Rights Act 2025, most dismissals for refusing specified contractual changes are scheduled to become automatically unfair from 1 January 2027, subject to a narrow severe-financial-difficulty defence. Redundancy dismissals must be handled fairly. Employers should consult, use fair selection criteria, consider suitable alternative employment, and pay statutory redundancy where the legal conditions are met. The weekly-pay cap for statutory redundancy remains £719 for cases where the relevant date is on or after 6 April 2025, giving a maximum statutory redundancy payment of £21,570. At present, most employees need two years’ service to claim ordinary unfair dismissal and to request written reasons for dismissal. A fixed-term employee whose contract is not renewed can request written reasons after one year’s service. Certain reasons are automatically unfair from day one, including pregnancy or maternity, taking family leave, trade union activities, whistleblowing, asserting statutory rights, health and safety activities, and participation in protected industrial action. An unfair dismissal claim must usually be lodged within three months minus one day of the effective date of termination, subject to Acas Early Conciliation. Available remedies include reinstatement, re-engagement, and compensation. The compensatory award remains capped under current law, but the cap is scheduled to be removed for dismissals from 1 January 2027, when the ordinary qualifying period is also due to fall from two years to six months. The Employment Rights Act 2025 is being commenced in stages. Relevant confirmed dates include: 18 February 2026 for stronger protection against dismissal for taking protected industrial action; 6 April 2026 for the doubling of the maximum collective-redundancy protective award from 90 to 180 days’ pay; and 1 January 2027 for the ordinary unfair-dismissal and fire-and-rehire reforms. Wider collective-redundancy threshold reform is planned for 2027 but is not yet in force. Source: §86-132 of the Employment Rights Act (ERA); The Code of Practice (Dismissal and Re-engagement) Order 2024; §25-29, 76, 77 of the Employment Rights Act, 2025
Regulations on Employment Security
- Working Time Regulations 1998 (as amended by 2009 Amendment Regulations)
- Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations [FTER], 2002 Date: 30 Jul 2002
