Employment rights

Junior lecturers at a UK university were being engaged on service contracts that gave them very few employment rights. A preliminary analysis showed that they had a strong legal case to insist on genuine employment contracts. Funding enabled the provision of legal advice from a law firm and a barrister’s opinion. On the back of that the law firm engaged in negotiation but also began the process of preparing for the tribunal case. The clear readiness to proceed to trial and the availability of funds to do so convinced the university that it should settle, with offers of formal employment contracts and of compensation to some individuals for previously denied rights to holiday and other pay.