What are the rights of employees on fixed term agreements?

People working on fixed-term agreements have the same entitlements to paid and unpaid parental leave as employees. To be eligible for these entitlements, people working on fixed-term agreements must meet the same eligibility criteria as employees.

If you are working on a fixed-term agreement you can apply for leave and payments if you are:

a pregnant woman
either parent of a child under six that you are jointly adopting with your spouse/partner.

The length of your leave entitlement and payment will, however, be affected by the date on which your fixed term agreement ends. Your entitlement to leave and payment ends the same day your fixed-term agreement expires.

If your fixed-term agreement ends while you are receiving parental leave payments, you must tell Inland Revenue when the agreement expired.

Employers may hire a temporary employee on a fixed-term agreement to replace employees while they are on parental leave. The employer must tell the replacement employee in writing that they are employed on a temporary basis to replace someone on parental leave, and that the person on leave may return from leave early.

This page was last updated on: 06-Jul-2006 and is current.

Further information & guidance

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