Is a staff member on a fixed term contract for a duration of more than two years entitled to a redundancy payment or does the contract end by reaching the agreed specified date? If there is a redundancy entitlement, must fair selection criteria be met before ending the fixed term contract?

This member of staff would have unfair dismissal rights by reason of being in employment for more than one year. The question to ask, therefore, to help mitigate against the risk of an unfair dismissal claim, is what is the reason for the dismissal? The reason must be one of the fair reasons of dismissal, which commonly in this circumstance is redundancy. If it is, the employer will need to follow a fair procedure (including the use of fair selection criteria if appropriate) and a statutory redundancy payment is due if the employee has two years’ service.

In other cases there may be a different valid reason for termination depending on the employer’s reasons for using a fixed term contract