GUIDANCE NOTE FOR CONDUCTING MEETINGS WITH FIXED TERM CONTRACT STAFF WHOSE CONTRACT IS DUE TO EXPIRE
Why have the Meeting?
The meeting is being convened because under the recent Employment Act 2002 (Disputes Resolution) Regulations 2004, the University has to offer a meeting and the right of appeal to any individual employee who is on a fixed term contract which is about to expire. This situation constitutes a potential dismissal due to redundancy.
How you should arrange the Meeting
You should arrange the meeting within 6 weeks of receiving the letter from Human Resources informing you of the individual's expiry of contract. The individual should be given at least one week's notice of the meeting.
The individual has the right to be accompanied by a Trade Union representative or work colleague. Ideally, you should ask them in advance if they are bringing anyone with them, if they come alone then you should ask them if they are happy to be there on their own, if not then you should reconvene the meeting to a time when a representative can attend with them.
If you would like someone from HR to attend the meeting, please contact Carole Brennan on ext 2566 or email hr.general@st-andrews.ac.uk.
The Meeting
At the meeting, you should discuss why the contract is coming to an end, this could be because a research project is complete or funding is coming to an end and no more funding is available etc. If there is a possibility that more funding could be secured, every effort should be made to try and secure this funding.
The individual should have an opportunity to respond to the situation and put forward ideas/concerns. If the individual has valid and reasonable ideas on how to extend the post, then these should be explored fully.
Suitable Alternative Employment
This is an important area to be considered when someone is potentially to be made redundant and must be looked at in detail.
It would be impossible for you to know about all vacancies and potential vacancies within the University, however, you would be expected to find out about if there were going to be any suitable vacancies within your own School/Unit.
You should inform them at the meeting:
- Check the vacancy bulletin each week at Recruitment.
- Check that all new research vacancies will be emailed to all contract research staff.
- Check that research vacancies will be advertised internally in the first instance (approval to be sought)
If you or the individual identifies a post that may be suitable, then you should contact Human Resources immediately, ideally before the post is advertised.
The individual should be encouraged to take up redundancy consultation (as outlined in the letter that they receive subsequently to this meeting) by contacting Human Resources. Consultation will include help with CV preparation, skills analysis, advice on job search etc.
Right of Appeal
The individual should be informed that they have the right to appeal if they feel they have been treated unfairly. If you know at the time of the meeting that the post will definitely not be extended then the appeal should be submitted in writing to Mairi Stewart, Director of Human Resources within 5 working days of receiving the letter issued to the individual immediately after your meeting with them. If you cannot confirm at this stage whether or not the post will be extended, then the right of appeal should be delayed until you have communicated the final decision to them. When you communicate the final decision not to extend, you should also inform them that they can appeal in writing to Mairi Stewart, Director of Human Resources within 5 working days of you confirming this decision.
After the Meeting
After the meeting has taken place, you should send the template letter to the individual (see below for location of template letter and attachment) detailing the outcome of the meeting. You should delete the parts of the letter that are not appropriate to the situation. If it is an unusual situation and you are unsure of what to write, please contact Human Resources. The Redundancy Consultation sheet should also be attached to the letter.
The letter and any minutes of the meeting should be forwarded to Human Resources as soon as possible. This guide, the template letter and redundancy consultation sheet can be found at Human Resources .