What an Employer Needs to Know About Breaks Between Employment Contracts in England

As an employer, some of your employees will likely take breaks in their employment. While a break might not affect their continued employment with you, a substantial break could. Hence, it is important to know your worker’s employment status to provide them with appropriate entitlements. Otherwise, your employee could make an employment claim against you in a tribunal. Hence, this article explains what you, as an employer, need to know about breaks in employment contracts in England.

What is Continuous Employment?

Continuous employment is when your employee has worked for your business for an uninterrupted period from their employment start date.

Suppose your employee has a certain period of continuous employment known as the qualifying period. In that case, the law entitles them to specific rights and payments that they were not previously entitled to, such as:

• statutory maternity pay;
• statutory adoption pay;
• statutory paternity pay;
• to make an unfair dismissal claim;
• redundancy pay; and 
• the right to make a flexible working request. 

Hence, if your employee takes a break that affects their period of continuous employment, they may not be entitled to receive the above benefits.

What Are Breaks in Employment?

Your employees are bound to take breaks from their employment with you. While some breaks will not affect their continued employment, other breaks will. 

Breaks That Have No Effect on Continuous Employment 

Some beaks in your employees’ employment, which means their employment is still continuous, include:

• sick leave;
• annual leave;
• maternity, paternity, parental and adoption leave;
• time your employment contracts allow away from work;
• any time off work which is an arrangement you consider continuous employment;
• when your employee takes a working holiday;
• where your employee works for an employer associated with you;
• where your employee continues to work for your business, but you transfer the business to another employer;
• where another business takes over your business;
• if your employee spends time in military service and is back in employment with you within six months;
• where a temporary cessation exists, such as your workplace not being safe causes your employee to be absent;
• periods of temporary lay-offs;  
• employer lockouts; 
• when you dismiss your employee due to ill health but within 26 weeks employ them again; and 
• when you unfairly dismiss your employee, and they await reinstatement.

Breaks That Affect Continuous Employment

The only clear legal break in continuous employment is when your employee moves from one employment contract to another but has a break of a full week, which means from Sunday to Saturday.

Employees who take a break from their employment are generally entitled to return to their employment. Their time of continuous employment then starts again rather than continues from when they were previously an employee of yours. 

In terms of career breaks, these do not break the continuity of employment. Hence, career breaks count as continuous employment where you and your employee still have an employment contract, even though your employee is not doing any work for you. 

However, without an employment contract, it can constitute a break in the continuity of employment. Nevertheless, you can make an agreement providing otherwise.

Key Takeaways

You must understand whether a break affects your employee’s continued employment with your business. This is because once your employee completes a specific period of continuous employment, the law entitles them to further rights and benefits. For example, they will be able to make claims for unfair dismissal with an employment tribunal, be entitled to redundancy payments and potentially get statutory paternity pay. 

If you need help understanding what you need to know about breaks between employment contracts in England, our experienced employment lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents for a low monthly fee. So call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.

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