PART 1: DATES, DEFINITIONS AND OBLIGATIONS
process so that payments can be made during phased return to work and in June 2019 the Secretary for State for Work and Pensions confirmed that the Government would carry out major work to improve the way the SSP system works for employees and employers. Note that SSP was extensively adjusted in order to cope with the demands of the Covid-19 measures including dispesing with waiting days and a reintroduction of the employer reimbursement scheme. These are temporary measures and more information can be found in PART1, Covid-19. COPYRIGHT © 2021 THE CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF PAYROLL PROFESSIONALS At the time of publication we are still awaiting the results of the review. FIXED TERM WORKERS The EC Fixed Term Workers Directive was adopted by the UK with effect from 1st October 2002 by virtue of the Fixed Term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002. Fixed term employees: • have the right to no less favourable treatment than comparable permanent employees, i.e. those not on fixed-term contracts; (unless such treatment can be justified on objective grounds). The comparator can work for the same employer but in a different establishment, • have the right to receive statutory payments on the same basis as permanent employees (e.g. SSP, medical suspension), • cannot waive their statutory right to redundancy payments where their fixed term contract is for a period of two or more years, and • have the right to receive, and duty to give, one week’s notice. Where the overall package or terms is no less favourable, less favourable treatment in individual terms of the contract may be justified. The use of successive fixed term contracts is limited to a maximum of four years (unless a longer period is objectively justified or varied by workplace or collective agreement). Employees who were already working under a fixed-term contract on 1 October 2002 and who have continued to work under a series of fixed term contracts since then will be treated as having the necessary four years continuity of employment on 1 October 2006. Their contracts become permanent contracts on that date. A fixed term contract ending when a task is completed, or when a specified event does not happen, will be deemed to have ended. FLEXIBLE WORKING From 6th April 2003, parents with children under 6 years of age, or disabled children under age 18, were given the right to request a flexible working pattern. Their employer was given a duty to consider the application seriously. From 6th April 2007, the Flexible Working (Eligibility, Complaints and Remedies) (Amendment) Regulations 2006 (there are different regulations and rules for Northern Ireland) extended the right to request flexible working to those employees with a caring responsibility for someone who has a prescribed relationship with the person hey care for. No printing, copying or reproduction permitted. From 6th April 2009 the right was extended to those with parental responsibility for a child aged
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