Continuous Service

Continuous Service

Overview

Continuous Service is the recognised period of ongoing employment an individual has accrued with their current employer.

Certain rights are conferred based on an individual’s length of continuous service. These can be legal rights such as the right not to be unfairly dismissed after two years’ service, but also some staff benefits such as service-related sickness pay, service-related annual leave and University enhanced maternity/family leave pay.

For example, staff on APT&C (Professional Services) contracts will be entitled to 5 days’ additional annual leave when they have accrued five years’ continuous service with the University, however academic staff have fixed holiday entitlements which are not affected by service length.

Redundancy Modification Order

The University of Worcester is a Post-92 Institution that recognises the Redundancy Modification Order (RMO). This means employees can have their previous employment with certain institutions recognised as continuous service if that previous institution also recognises the RMO and providing the individual has not had a break in employment in between the two employers.

The purpose of the Redundancy Modification Order (also known as “the Modification Order”) is to preserve continuous service for the purposes of entitlement to redundancy payments and calculating the amount of redundancy pay payable. Where continuous service is recognised under the RMO, employees of the University will have this recognised in the event they are unfortunately then subsequently made redundant.

Example: An employee started worked with the University on 1st January 2016. Previously they worked for The University of Gloucestershire, starting there on 1st January 2010. Without a break in their service, the employee may be able to have their continuous service date with the University of Worcester recognised as 1st January 2010. This would mean they would be entitled to an additional six years of service to be factored into their redundancy pay entitlement calculation should their employment with University of Worcester end by means of redundancy in the future.

Continuous service recognised by the RMO does not count towards the two-year qualifying period of service needed to confer the right not to be unfairly dismissed.