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Question:

I WILL BE EMPLOYING TEMPORARY WORKERS OVER THE CHRISTMAS PERIOD. DO I HAVE TO GIVE THEM THE SAME PAY AND BENEFITS AS PERMANENT EMPLOYEES?

Answer:

Businesses, which employ staff for seasonal work, such as shop work during Christmas, and hotel and leisure work during the summer, as well as those covering for maternity leave, will be affected by the Fixed-Term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations.
The regulations require businesses to give the same pay and benefits to staff on fixed-term contracts as comparable permanent employees, unless there is a genuine objective justification for the difference. Examples of less favourable treatment include fixed term employees receiving less holiday pay than comparable permanent employees, not receiving any commission or bonus scheme operated by the business or failing to be included in any company healthcare provisions. Perhaps more importantly, unfavourable treatment can include excluding fixed term employees from any possible promotion available to permanent employees and selecting such workers for redundancy in preference to their
colleagues.
New regulations do not require every benefit between the two sets of employees to be exactly the same though if a fixed term employee believes they are being less favourably treated then they may present their case to an Employment Tribunal. The employer would have to demonstrate to the Tribunal that the difference in treatment was justified.