In order to comply with Employment legislation fixed term appointments may only be used where there is a genuine management need to make an appointment of limited duration of between one and up to 4 years. (Where there is genuine management need to make an appointment of less than 1 year a casual appointment should be used). Examples of a genuine management need may be where the work/task is known to be of limited duration such as a project-based post or to meet a short term staffing need such as a career break.

Recruiters should be aware that:-

• The expiry of a FTA without renewal constitutes a dismissal and FTA's have a right to claim unfair dismissal before an Employment Tribunal under the Employment Relations Act 1999. When contemplating not renewing a fixed term contract, the employer will be required to complete statutorily compliant dismissal procedures before any type of dismissal (including the natural expiry of a fixed-contract). The minimum statutory procedural requirements are - in summary - that the employer must provide a written statement of the reasons why dismissal is being contemplated, hold a meeting with the employee, and have an appeals process. HMPS must also act reasonably - this will involve considering whether the individual could be kept on in some other capacity.
• If an employee is dismissed before the expiry of the period of the appointment, he/she may make an application to an Employment Tribunal claiming compensation for unfair dismissal in the normal way, provided he/she has at least 12 months service.
• Civil servants on FTAS may be entitled to redundancy compensation. The EC Directive on Fixed Term Work changes section 197(3) of the Employment Relations Act 1996. From 10 July 2001 the ability to require the signing of a waiver clause for entitlement to redundancy payments ceased. FTA's appointed or renewed prior to 10 July 2001 will still contain a clause waiving an employee's entitlement to a redundancy payment.

• FTAs may be appointed within normal levels of devolved authority except for prison officers who may not be appointed on a fixed term basis.
• Recruitment of FTAs must follow the normal procedures of open and fair competition and selection on merit apart from:-
  - when advertising the advert must specify the length of the appointment and if there is a possibility of permanency, promotion or renewal on expiry of the period, this too must be publicised.
  - the advertisement and supporting literature must be retained on the Recruitment campaign file for the duration of the appointment so that the basis on which the post was advertised is known in the event of extension or wider deployment being considered.
  - appointments of staff under the New Deal scheme
  - a model fixed term appointment letter must be issued to anyone appointed on a fixed term contract, except those appointed on the New Deal scheme where a separate letter exists. Depending on the grade being recruited the relevant schedule setting out the main terms and conditions of appointment must be enclosed with the appointment letter amended as follows.
Probation
In fixed term schedules the reference to permanent appointment in line 2 must be removed.

Annual Leave
In all cases the following wording must be used for all non-shift working staff:-
In addition to the public and privilege holidays falling within your period of employment you will be allowed paid annual leave, after four weeks effective service, proportionate to the number of days worked. The allowance will be based on an annual leave allowance of [ ] days.
For shift working staff other than OSGs:-
Shift workers in the Prison Service record their annual leave allowance in hours. Your annual leave allowance is calculated as the number of days annual leave allowance (22, 25 or 30) times your gross conditioned hours divided by 5 (e.g. 42/5). For example, if you have 25 days annual leave and work a 42 hour week, your annual leave in hours is 25 x 42/5 = 210 hours. In addition you will be entitled to public and privilege holidays falling within your period of employment. These will be expressed in hours and added to your annual leave allowance.
For OSGs please use the wording within the OSG Schedule C, but proportion leave allowance to length of appointment.
• Sick Absence
  For appointments of up to two years remove sections 6a and b completely and replace with the following wording: 'You will be allowed one weeks paid sick absence for every four weeks of paid service up to a maximum of 6 months'. For appointments of over two years retain the current wording relating to sick absence.
• Notice
  The following clause of the section on Notice must be removed for all fixed term appointment letters. "If you are retired prematurely, you may be eligible for a longer period of notice, details of which may be found in the Code"
• Age of Retirement
  No reference to age of retirement must be made in any fixed term appointment letter

Once appointed fixed term appointees: -

• must, under the EC Directive on Fixed Term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002, be kept informed of permanent job vacancies to which they would be eligible to apply; this includes internal boards which if they were a permanent member of staff they could apply for.
• recruited through fair and open competition may apply for internally advertised posts under the Vacancy Advertising Scheme as found in PSO 8110. If successful they become a permanent member of staff taking up their new post. This ensures compliance with the EC Directive on Fixed Term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002.

Further guidance on the use of FTAs is available by clicking here.