The Fixed-term Work Directive is one of three EU Directives that regulate atypical work. Alongside the Part-time Work Directive and the Agency Work Directive its aim is to ensure that people who have not contracted for permanent jobs are nevertheless guaranteed a minimum level of equal treatment compared to full-time permanent staff. Fixed-term work contracts purport to be of limited duration, but staff with such contracts can claim that they are permanent after a maximum of four years. Member states in the European union can, and usually do, go beyond the minimum.
Content
Article 1 of the Directive states its purpose to enforce the framework agreement between the ETUC, the UNICE and the CEEP. This gives rise to the various provisions on fixed-term worker rights in the Directive.
clause 3 states that a fixed term worker is ‘a person having an employment contract or relationship entered into directly between an employer and a worker where the end of the employment relationship is determined by objective conditions such as reaching a specific date, completing a specific task, or the occurrence of a specific event’. This definition was intended to exclude agency workers by referring to an employment contract entered into ‘directly’: their rights are found in the Agency Work Directive.
clause 4 says that ‘in respect of employment conditions, fixed-term workers shall not be treated in a less favourable manner than comparable permanent workers solely because they have a fixed term contract or relation unless different treatment is justified on objective grounds.’ pro-rata social partners should be consulted before qualification periods set ‘Period-of service qualifications relating to particular conditions of employment shall be the same for fixed-term workers as for permanent workers except where different length-of service qualifications are justified on objective grounds.’
clause 5 prevents abuse of fixed term contracts, by implementing either objective reasons for renewal a limit of total duration of successive fixed term contracts a limit of number of renewals
clause 6 requires that fixed-term workers receive the same information and employment opportunities
clause 7 requires that fixed-term workers receive the same information and consultation rights
clause 8, says that member states can be more favourable in their national laws
