Continuous service is a fundamental concept that most HR professionals are all too aware of. After all, for staff it means the difference between qualifying, and not qualifying, for a number of benefits; including entitlement to request flexible working, maternity and paternity pay, and of course, it is an important factor in assessing period of notice and any compensation which may be due, for example, redundancy pay and unfair dismissal compensation.

Some staff may, at some point, leave your employment, perhaps to study, perhaps to travel or for a career break and return within a short period. But what constitutes a break in service for the purposes of employment?

The law states that an employee’s continuous service is broken if their employment is interrupted by “a week or more”. Sounds straightforward? At first glance yes, it is. However, a week is defined as “a period of seven consecutive days that begin on a Sunday and ends at midnight on the following Saturday”. Again, sounds straight forward until you’re faced with someone who leaves your employment on a Tuesday and is re-hired 10 days later, on the Friday. Although your employee has been out of the business for 10 days, the requirement of a Sunday to a Saturday interruption has not been met, and therefore, their employment is continuous.

Several of our clients have come across this exact issue: and have experienced problems when calculating length of service for redundancy pay. We advise employers who re-hire staff after a short period to leave a gap of 2 weeks and to re-issue them with a whole new contract, making it clear that their employment starts on the new date, and that no period of service prior to this date counts towards their continuous service.

If you have a topic that you’d like us to cover in a future update, please let us know by emailing us at Adviceline@vizualhr.com.

The information contained above is for guidance only and represents our understanding of employment law and employee relations issues as at 2nd December 2009. VizualHR cannot be held responsible for any action or inaction taken in reliance upon the contents. Specific advice should be sought on any individual matter.