No later than 1 month before the contract end date
No later than one month prior to the scheduled expiry of a fixed-term contract, if employment has not been renewed or extended, and no suitable redeployment opportunities have been found, the department must write to the employee confirming that their contract will expire, using (pro-forma letter X4). This letter should include information on redundancy pay and the right to appeal.
Notice Period
Fixed-term contracts provide notice of the date on which, subject to renewal or extension, the employee’s employment will come to an end. As a result, there is no contractual requirement to provide a further notice period if employment is expected to end on the date specified in the employment contract.
Redundancy payment
Employees on fixed-term contracts are entitled to a statutory redundancy payment if they have worked continuously for the University for at least two years and their post is being made redundant.
Whenever a redundancy payment is made, the employee must be given a written statement showing how the payment has been calculated.
Employees may, however, not be entitled to a redundancy payment if they:
- have found, or been successfully redeployed, to another post within the University;
- have been offered and refused suitable alternative work without good reason;
- leave employment before the end of the notice period (by resignation) in order to take up alternative work whether within the University or elsewhere; or
- have been employed to cover a maternity/sickness absence leave, or their contract is ending because their limited term visa is ending, but the post they occupy is not being made redundant.
- E64 Clinical training fellowships: when such contracts reach their completion date, as long as the reason for the fixed term for non-renewal is that the training has been completed the reason for employment ending is not redundancy but ‘some other substantial reason', and therefore no redundancy payment is due. Pro forma letter X6 should be used. The normal FTC process should still be followed.
An employee does not have to make a claim to redundancy pay in order to be entitled to it. The employing department must calculate the statutory redundancy payment using the calculator tool on the Gov.uk website and then process this payment in People XD by following the instructions in the QRG:EA1.
Departments that do not use PeopleXD directly should notify the HRIS Data Services team via the Data Services Leaver Form, which should be uploaded onto Sharepoint in order for the Data Services team to process this payment in PeopleXD.
The redundancy payments will normally be made with the final pay or in the next available pay period after notification as a bank transfer payment.
Employees who, on leaving University employment, receive a redundancy payment should not be re-employed by the University in any capacity for a period of at least four complete calendar weeks (a calendar week being judged to start on a Sunday) after the leaving date. For further information contact your HR Business Partner.
If a staff member holds more than one contract at the University
If a staff member who holds more than one contract at the University is being made redundant from only one contracted role they may (save where any of the exemptions noted above apply) be entitled to a statutory redundancy payment. Further guidance should be sought from the HR Business Partner in this situation.
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