Mrs J Ward Mr E Borowski Ms X v Mr N MacDougall Counsel Ministry of Justice — 2019

The claimant joined the Ministry of Justice as a trainee solicitor on 9 March 2015 and, after completion of her traineeship, was offered a six-month fixed-term band B legal adviser contract from 9 March 2017 to 8 September 2017. Before the contract ended, she had been placed on a reserve list for a Band Ba vacancy but was not appointed to that post, and she pursued an internal grievance and appeal about the non-appointment and the ending of her fixed-term appointment.

The tribunal recorded that the claimant had originally raised claims for unfair dismissal, discrimination because of sex and pregnancy/maternity, breach of contract and breach of the Fixed Term Employees Regulations, but those claims were withdrawn except for unfair dismissal. It rejected the claimant's submission that the expiry of the fixed-term contract was not a potentially fair reason for dismissal. Applying the authorities of Terry v East Sussex County Council and Fay v North Yorkshire County Council, the tribunal held that the respondent relied on some other substantial reason and that the fixed-term contract had been adopted for a genuine purpose.

The tribunal found that the genuine purpose of the fixed-term appointment was to provide additional resource to support the smooth transition of new trainees, legal work during vacancy-filling activities in relation to the director post, and extra cover for increasing operational decision-making capacity. It found that the claimant was aware, in general and sufficiently specific terms, of that purpose from discussions with Michael Hanlon, including references to the move-on of the director, support for the Mission Possible work, and mentoring of trainees.

The tribunal further found that the specific purpose of the fixed-term contract had ceased by the time it ended in September 2017, because the Mission Possible targets had been completed, the director vacancy had been filled, the transitional period had passed and the paternity leave cover had ended. On reasonableness, it held that suitable alternative employment had been considered, that the claimant had made clear she was not interested in non-legal roles, that the relevant Band Ba vacancy required three years' post-qualification experience for supervisory reasons, and that there had been no unreasonable failure to consider reinstatement. The claim for unfair dismissal was therefore dismissed and no award was made.