UK: Employers can face 'series of acts' detriment claims from fixed-term employees where treatment spans a number of discrete fixed-term contracts

Where a fixed-term or part-time employee is subjected to less favourable treatment in the form of a series of similar acts or failures, the time limit for bringing a claim is three months from the last in the series. The EAT has confirmed that, where the complaint concerns the application of a rule, practice, scheme or policy across a number of separate contracts with gaps in between (in this case, a teacher's consecutive contracts, each covering one academic semester), this can be sufficiently linked to be treated as a series (and thereby extend the time limit for claims).

The EAT also ruled that the employer could be ordered to pay the claimant's appeal fees, even where paid by his trade union. This judgment conflicts with an earlier EAT ruling, leaving the position uncertain until clarified by the Court of Appeal or amendment to the rules. (Ibarz v University of Sheffield)