Employment Terms & Conditions - Employment Contracts

Employment contracts may be issued on a full or part-time basis, depending upon the requirements of the post and/or any flexible working arrangements in place and, on a fixed or variable hours’ basis.  It is not permissible for employees to be contracted to work more than full-time.  In addition, any employee should have a single contract of employment with our University.  Any variation to this requires prior approval of the Director of Human Resources. Our University issues the following types of contract:

Indefinite Contract
An indefinite contract is issued where the employment has no specified end date, provided that an employee has satisfactorily completed any probationary period and has appropriate permissions to work.

Fixed-term Contract
A fixed-term contract is one with a defined end date or one that refers to the completion of a particular project or task.  Staff appointed on a fixed-term contract should reasonably expect the contract to terminate at the end of the relevant period.  Fixed-term contracts are issued by our University for transparent, necessary and objective reasons, for example:

• The post may be dependent on external funding which is available for a specific period of time; or
• The sole purpose of the post may be to undertake a particular task or project and will terminate upon completion of the task or project; or
• The post may be to provide cover for an employee absent through illness, maternity or other periods of leave; or
• The post may be to provide additional staff or resource for a specific period; or
• The nature or duration of the contract may be dependent upon an employee having continued permission to work in the UK.

Under the provisions of the Asylum, Immigration and Nationality Act 2006, it is a requirement that all new staff are able to provide documentary proof of their eligibility to work in the United Kingdom (UK).  Individuals are asked to provide this evidence at interview stage.  An individual cannot commence employment with our University until this evidence has been seen. 

In addition to this, our University is legally obliged to check the documentation of all employees who have been granted leave to enter or remain in the UK for a limited period of time and who started work at our University on or after 29 February 2008.  We are required to carry out these repeat checks at least once every 12 months.

Our University may have a legal obligation to terminate employment with immediate effect if an employee is unable to demonstrate continued permission to work in the UK.

A number of designated posts within our University are subject to a Standard or Enhanced criminal record check in accordance with the relevant legislation.  Individuals are required to inform our University of any criminal convictions applying to them, subsequent to appointment to post.  This will be treated in the strictest confidence.  In addition, our University reserves the right to require an employee to submit for further disclosure on a regular basis or at any time as determined by our University. 

Our University reserves the right to terminate employment with immediate effect should it not be satisfied with the outcome of any disclosure or if an employee fails to submit for disclosure when requested, or if they fail to declare any subsequent criminal convictions.  For further information, please refer to our Criminal Records Bureau / Disclosure & Barring Service Policy and Guidance.

Probationary periods of employment, in which an individual’s suitability for the position to which they have been appointed will be assessed, apply to newly appointed employees to our University.

The probationary periods of employment are:

• Grade 1-5, up to 6 months
• Grade 6 and above, up to 12 months

The exception to the above probationary periods of employment is where employees appointed to Academic posts have 2 or more years teaching experience within the Higher Education sector.  For further information, please refer to our Probation Policy.

Our University is committed to providing a safe and healthy environment in which our staff and students can work and study in.  As such we have positioned our statutory health and safety responsibilities within a wider approach to staff and student wellbeing that goes beyond achieving minimum legal compliance. Staff are required to co-operate with Health & Safety policy and procedures and codes of practice relating to Health and Safety. For further information and guidance, please refer to our Safety, Health & Wellbeing webpage.

All employees are required, in relation to the performance of their duties, to participate in the Annual Performance and Development Review (PDR) process approved by the Board of Governors.  For further information, please refer to our PDR webpage.

For Academic post-holders, external work which is supportive of professional responsibilities is encouraged by our University.  Before entering into any obligations to undertake external work, including consultancy, permission of our University must be sought.  For further information on the approval process, please refer to our policy on External Work for Lecturing Employees.

For Grade 10 and above post-holders, the written approval of the Vice-Chancellor must be sought before accepting or retaining any other paid employment or appointments such as consultancy.