Temporary To Permanent Contract

[Sado]

How long can someone be kept on a temporary contract before they must be made permament?

[lcg]

forever?

[CoffeeLounge]

If you are on a temporary contract you will or should have a start and finish date. If you work past your finish date and you do not sign another temporary contract you are then deemed to be a permanent employee even if you do not sign a permanent contract as it is classed as a verbal contract which is still binding. If you Finish your temporary contract and then another temporary is issued this can go on for ever.

[woofgang]

in the UK its 4 years.
https://www.gov.uk/fixed-term-contracts/renewing-or-ending-a-fixedterm-contract

[woofgang]

if you work beyond the end of your contract but not as long as 4 years, the assumption is that the contract end date has changed NOT that you have become permanent.

[buildersmate]

No, Woofgang, I'm afraid you've got it wrong by Googling it, and thinking that you know about this stuff. What you've picked up is a FIXED-TERM contract - it isn't the same thing

To be honest, there isn't a difference now in the UK between a permanent contract and a temporary contract, in that after 12 months on a temporary contract, the employee picks up employment rights (protection against unfair dismiss being the main one) and after 2 years continuous employment the employer picks up rights to redundancy pay.

A fixed term contract is something different - of a clearly-defined length. The legislation you found applies when a fixed term contract is not renewed by the employer - after 4 years the employee gets the rights you found by Googling.

What is the context of your question, Sado.