'less favourable treatment'

Less favourable treatment happens when a fixed-term employee does not receive conditions or benefits granted to a comparable permanent employee – or receives or is offered a benefit on less favourable terms.Examples of less favourable treatment would include not being given a bonus or receiving fewer paid holidays than comparable permanent employees.

If you give training to permanent employees, you must not deny fixed-term employees access to it unless it can be objectively justified. In addition, permanent staff must not enjoy preferential treatment for promotion or redundancy, unless objectively justifiable.If a fixed-term employee feels less favourably treated because of their employment status or believes their rights have been infringed, they can request a written statement from you detailing the reasons. You must produce this within 21 days. If you don't believe less favourable treatment has been given, the statement should say so. The statement might be used at an employment tribunal hearing.


What is objective justification:Less favourable treatment will be justified on objective grounds if you can show that it is necessary and appropriate to achieve a legitimate and genuine business objective.

You should consider offering fixed-term employees certain benefits (eg loans, clothing allowances, etc) on a pro-rata basis. Sometimes, the cost to you of offering certain benefits to a fixed-term employee may be disproportionate to the benefit the employee would receive. This may objectively justify different treatment