The date of continuous service should be the date they began regular employment with the organisation. This date should also be written in their contract of employment, assuming that there has been no break in their employment.
The date of continuous service is important because length of service will determine when employees become eligible for various benefits.
I have taken on a member of staff from a fixed-term contract. Should the continuous service date be from the original start date of the FTC or from the date that their new contract starts?
The date of continuous service should be from the start of their fixed term contract if there has been no break in their employment.
If we take an agency temp onto our books, do we have to backdate the continuous start date from when they started temping with us?
There has been a lot of case law on agency temps recently highlighting the relevance of the paperwork trail as to who the employer is. It would potentially now be very difficult not to backdate the continuous service from the beginning of the temporary contracts, even though the contract of employment start date would be at a later date. Various case law is indicating that if an employee is working under your direction and undertaking the same role and duties then the continuous start date could be from the date they started to work under your direction, even though their contract of employment was not with you.
We have just bought another company and have 'inherited' their employees. Do we have to take into account their service with the previous company?
Yes, under the TUPE legislation all contractual rights are passed to the new employer so you must therefore class their previous service as being continuous and make the start date for continuity of service purposes the date when they just started with the original company.
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