Fixed-term contract checker

The checker puts your contracts in date order and joins those with no whole free week between them into one chain of continuous employment. It counts the years from the chain's first day, then looks for the first renewed or later contract that runs to the day they are complete. That contract becomes permanent from the later of its own start and that day.

The law behind it is the Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002, in force since 1 October 2002. Their title names their main aim, ending less favourable treatment of fixed-term staff. Regulation 8 adds a limit on how long successive contracts may run. Once it applies, the term that restricts the contract's duration "shall be of no effect", and the employee "shall be a permanent employee".

Nothing has to be signed for that to happen: the contract becomes open-ended by operation of law. The rule only reaches a contract that has been renewed, or one that follows another fixed-term contract with the same employer. Regulation 1(2) treats extending a contract as renewing it, so the checker takes every extension as the next contract in the list.

GOV.UK sums it up in one line. Anyone on fixed-term contracts for 4 or more years "will automatically become a permanent employee, unless the employer can show there is a good business reason not to do so". The checker opens on three back-to-back contracts from 1 September 2022. Their four years are complete on 31 August 2026, during contract 3, so that is the date shown.

For this rule, continuous employment counts only from 10 July 2002 (paragraph (4) of the regulation), so an older chain is measured from that day. Many guides say the change comes "after four years", meaning the anniversary, 1 September 2026 here. The checker follows paragraph (3) instead: the day the employee "acquired" the years. That is the day before the anniversary (Pacitti Jones v O'Brien [2005] CSIH 56).

On the later of two days: the day the latest contract was entered into or renewed, and the day four years' continuous employment are complete (regulation 8(3)). So a renewal made during the third year turns permanent on the second date, and one made after it turns permanent from its own start.

A fixed-term employee in Great Britain or Northern Ireland becomes permanent by operation of law, with nothing to sign, once three conditions are met. The contract has been renewed, or it follows an earlier fixed-term contract with the same employer. Employment has been continuous for four years, counted from the first day of the chain, or from 10 July 2002 when it began earlier. And the employer cannot show that keeping the contract fixed-term was objectively justified when it was last renewed. The change takes effect on the later of the latest renewal and the day the years are complete. A renewal running past that day turns permanent on it; one that starts after it turns permanent from its start.

A chain that began on 1 January 2022 completes its four years on 31 December 2025, and a renewal that outlasts that day is permanent from it. Five dated chains show how the dates fall, each worked out by the checker.

The third chain stops short: its renewal ends before 31 December 2025, so it stays fixed-term, and a further contract lasting beyond that day would convert. The single contract of six years never does, because it was neither renewed nor preceded by another. The last chain starts again after a break. Its second contract still counts on its own, since a fixed-term contract came before it.

That last reading is the checker's own. Regulation 8(1)(b) asks only whether the employee "has previously been employed on a fixed-term contract". So a later contract that runs four years by itself is treated as converting. The checker also takes each contract's first day for the day it was entered into or renewed.

A gap of 6 days or less never breaks continuity, and one of 13 days or more always does. In between, the weekday on which the last contract ends decides, because continuity of employment is counted in whole weeks.

The Employment Rights Act 1996 decides continuity week by week (section 210(3)). Under section 212(1), any week during the whole or part of which a contract of employment governs the relationship counts. A week is a "week ending with Saturday" (section 235(1)). So a break in service needs one whole Sunday-to-Saturday week with no contract at all.

A contract ending on a Saturday leaves the next week free at once, so a gap of 7 days can already break the chain. One ending on a Sunday has 12 days of slack. Put another way, the next contract has to start by the Saturday of the week after the one in which the old contract ends. The rows run through one week in July 2026, and every other week follows the same pattern.

Section 212(3) keeps a week counting in some gaps with no contract in force. Absence on account of a temporary cessation of work counts. So does absence where, by arrangement or custom, the employee is still regarded as employed. The checker cannot judge that, so it asks; a "yes" counts every gap as continuous and the result says so.

Weeks of sickness or injury between contracts count too, up to 26 of them (section 212(3)(a) and (4)); the checker leaves them out. A gap that keeps continuity still counts in the length, so a chain runs in calendar time from its first day. One that breaks it starts a fresh chain with the next contract. Only the chain holding the latest contract decides the result.

The conversion does not happen when using a fixed-term contract was objectively justified. Regulation 8(2)(b) tests that at one moment: when the contract was last renewed, or, for one never renewed, when it was entered into. GOV.UK calls it a good business reason, and it is the employer who has to show it.

The regulations list no grounds. Whether a post held for maternity cover is enough depends on the facts at that moment. The same goes for work tied to funding that stops on a known date. In a dispute, an Employment Tribunal decides. The checker cannot weigh a reason, so its date always carries the proviso that the employer may still justify the fixed term.

Regulation 8(5) lets a collective agreement or a workforce agreement replace the four-year limit. Such an agreement may cap the total time on fixed-term contracts, or the number of contracts and renewals. It may also list the objective grounds that justify a renewal. GOV.UK describes the effect as an agreement that "removes the automatic right".

With the agreement switch on, the checker takes the agreed years instead of four and, if set, the agreed number of contracts. Its reading is that the first contract beyond that number is permanent from its start. On the default chain, an agreed limit of three years gives 31 August 2025. A limit of two contracts gives 1 September 2025, the start of contract 3.

Take three contracts from one employer. The first runs from 1 August 2022 to Monday 31 July 2023. After a gap of 10 days, the second starts on Friday 11 August 2023 and runs to 31 July 2025. The third follows the next day and runs to 31 July 2027.

That gap holds no whole Sunday-to-Saturday week, because Friday 11 August 2023 falls inside the week that begins on 6 August 2023. So all three contracts form one chain from 1 August 2022. Its four years run out on 31 July 2026, during contract 3, and that is the day the employment becomes permanent.

Now move the dates by a few days. The first contract ends on Friday 28 July 2023 and the second starts on Monday 7 August 2023. The gap is only 9 days, yet the week from 30 July 2023 to 5 August 2023 has no contract. Continuity breaks, and the count restarts from 7 August 2023.

The new chain would need until 6 August 2027 to reach four years, and the third contract ends on 31 July 2027, just before. The result is "still fixed-term", with a row saying that any further contract running to that day converts. The same arithmetic, worked by hand from the statute, sits behind the reference cases further down.

The same continuous employment decides two qualifying periods, and both count from the first day of the chain, with no 2002 cut-off. Letting a fixed-term contract run out unrenewed is a dismissal in law (Employment Rights Act 1996, sections 95(1)(b) and 136(1)(b)). So the checker treats the last contract's last day as the day the employment would end.

Across the UK, statutory redundancy pay needs at least two years of continuous employment ending with that day (section 155). On the default chain, the two years are complete on 31 August 2024. Whether a non-renewal counts as a redundancy at all, and what it pays, is outside the checker.

In Great Britain, the qualifying period for an unfair dismissal claim depends on the effective date of termination. The commencement regulations made under the Employment Rights Act 2025 bring in six months where that date falls on or after 1 January 2027. For an earlier date the period stays at two years. Northern Ireland keeps one year under its own 1996 Order (article 140).

The switch can turn on a few days. A single contract from 1 July 2026 ending on 31 December 2026 needs two years, complete only on 30 June 2028. Ending on 2 January 2027 instead, it needs six months, complete on 31 December 2026, so the period is met.

When a contract is not renewed, income after it may come from New Style Jobseeker's Allowance, which the New Style JSA calculator works out. The checker does not compute a notice period or any pay due on the last day.

Regulation 9 gives anyone who thinks the four years have made them permanent a way to have it confirmed. After a written request, the employer has 21 days to answer in writing.

The written statement either confirms that the contract is no longer fixed-term, or that the employee is permanent. Otherwise it gives the reasons the contract remains fixed-term, including the grounds the employer relies on. A tribunal may draw inferences from a statement that is evasive or never sent.

If the employer still treats the post as fixed-term, the employee can ask an Employment Tribunal for a declaration of permanent status. Regulation 9 allows that only after the written request has been made, and only while the employee is still employed by that employer. The result's last row repeats the 21 days.

Acas has archived its own fixed-term advice, so the regulations themselves, GOV.UK and nidirect are the references used here. The dates a request relies on are those on the contracts and renewal letters.

The rule covers employees on fixed-term contracts, whatever the job. Some groups are outside the regulations altogether.

• Members of the armed forces (regulation 14).
• People on government training or work experience schemes, and students on higher education placements of up to a year (regulation 18).
• Agency workers (regulation 19).
• Apprentices (regulation 20).

Northern Ireland has its own Fixed-term Employees Regulations of 2002 (SR 2002/298). The matching regulation there sets the same four years, the same later-of date and the same 10 July 2002 cut-off. Continuity is decided under the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996.

nidirect puts it plainly: an employee "can be kept on successive fixed-term contracts for a limit of four years". In the checker, choosing that nation changes only the unfair dismissal period, to one year. England, Scotland and Wales share the Great Britain regulations.

The large figure is the date you count as a permanent employee, or "still fixed-term" when no contract reaches the four years. The rows below it give the day the years are complete, the start and length of the chain, the longest gap and any break. Each contract then appears with its length, the gap before it and its place in the chain.

The checker takes up to 8 contracts with one employer and works from their dates alone. It does not weigh objective grounds or count sickness weeks, strikes and lock-outs. It computes no notice period, pay or holiday entitlement; holiday owed at the end of a contract comes from the holiday pay calculator.

Everything typed stays in the browser and travels only in the page's link, so a shared link carries the dates. Put simply, the fixed term contract 4 year rule is a date calculation. Its one legal test, whether the employer can justify the fixed term, is the part the checker cannot settle.