Contracts of Indefinite Duration and Redundancy Payments

RESEARCH STAFF
CONTRACTS OF INDEFINITE DURATION AND REDUNDANCY PAYMENTS

Background : Protection of Employees (Fixed Term Work) Act, 2003

Research Staff with 3 years' service:
The Protection of Employees (Fixed Term Work) Act, 2003 stipulates that where an employee has been employed on a fixed term contract basis for 3 years, they may only be issued with one more contract. This contract may only be for a maximum period of 1 year. If the contract is to be for a period of more than 1 year, then a contract of indefinite duration must be offered.

Research Staff with 4 years' service:
The Protection of Employees (Fixed Term Work) Act, 2003 stipulates that where an employee is employed on 2 or more successive fixed term contracts, the aggregate duration of these fixed term contracts cannot exceed 4 years. Where this limit has been reached and the employee's contract is extended, the employee automatically obtains the right to a contract of indefinite duration.

Single Fixed-Term Contracts
A single fixed-term contract can be issued for any duration. For example, if funding has been secured for a 5 year period, then it may be preferable to issue a single fixed term contract of 5 years from the start.

Note : Fixed Term Contract Renewals: The College is obliged under the Act to notify the employee before the date of renewal why their contract is being renewed for a fixed term only and why a contract of indefinite duration is not being offered. If the employee is not informed of this before the date of renewal, the legislation states that they will default to a contract of indefinite duration. Therefore, it is imperative that Staff Office receives the contract renewal information as soon as possible in order to ensure a prompt turnaround of the new contract letter.

Contract of Indefinite Duration
In line with the provisions of the Act, a research staff member who has been employed on successive fixed term contracts and has now reached the above limits must be issued with a contract of indefinite duration. A contract of indefinite duration means that the employee is guaranteed to hold the post as long as the work continues, i.e. the employee's contract could not be terminated and someone else taken on to do the same work. Therefore the employee's contract could only be terminated if the work ceases (e.g. if the research project is completed or no further research funding can be secured).

What if the research grant only has funding for a limited time?
Staff Office has received legal advice that economic grounds would not be considered legitimate justification for issuing further fixed term contracts. Recent judgements by the Rights Commissioner support this advice. The rationale for this being that the College is entirely supported by funding and therefore we cannot discriminate between employees based solely on where their funding comes from. Therefore, a contract of indefinite duration must be offered in line with the provisions of the Act, irrespective of the funding term or source.

What if the work and/or funding comes to an end?
If the work or funding comes to an end, then it must firstly be determined whether any suitable alternative employment exists within the College. If no suitable alternative employment exists, then the postholder is made redundant. Please note that posts are made redundant and not people (i.e. you cannot make a person redundant if the work is to continue). In selecting a particular employee for redundancy, an employer must apply selection criteria that are reasonable and are applied in a fair manner. For example, where two employees carry out the same work but sufficient funding is only available to support one employee, the selection for redundancy must be based on criteria such as skills, length of service or other such criteria.

Note also that where an employee elects to terminate their employment of their own accord, this is not a redundancy situation, as the employer still has work available for the employee, but the employee is choosing not to accept the work.

Would the staff member be entitled to redundancy payments?
Where a redundancy situation arises, any employee with at least 2 years' continuous service with the employer is entitled to a redundancy payment. This applies whether the employee is employed on a fixed term contract or a contract of indefinite duration; the Redundancy Payments Act 1967, Section 9(1)(b) explicitly states that where a fixed term contract expires and is not renewed, a redundancy situation arises.

Therefore the issuing of a contract of indefinite duration for a researcher does not give the researcher any right to redundancy that they would not already have held as a fixed term staff member.

How much would the redundancy payment be?
Currently, the statutory redundancy amount is calculated as 2 weeks salary per year of service plus 1 extra week. The maximum weekly salary allowed in the calculation is currently 600 euros per week. For example, if a Researcher has been employed for 4 years and earns 750 euros per week, then the amount of the redundancy payment would be:

4 years x (600* x 2) + 600* = 5,400 euros

* 600 euros being the maximum allowable weekly salary

If a Researcher is on a contract of indefinite duration and he/she is to be made redundant
All research staff have a contractual notice period of 1 calendar month, however staff with over 10 years' service are legally entitled to greater notice periods.

For more information on redundancy procedures and entitlements, please visit the Citizens Information website.

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