Contracts of Employment
Get a contract Issued
If a post is recruited directly by a School (for example a Research Assistant, Research Fellow or Visiting Professor) then the HR Department requires a completed Nomination Form (DOC 46kB) and Applicant Declaration Form (PDF 26 KB)
The form must be completed and signed by the Grant Holders AND counter-signed by the Head of School. This should then be sent to the relevant Faculty HR Advisor for approval at the Faculty Executive Committee. The details contained on this form are required to draw up the necessary contract of employment. Incomplete forms will be returned. Further information in relation to the employment of research personnel is available here.
Contracts are normally sent to the home address of the new employee, however if they are already in their College position, then it will be sent through the internal post via the Head of School / Grant Holder.
A vacancy which is filled through the Recruitment Section will issue a contract automatically once verbal agreement has been reached with the candidate.
If you require further information on contractual matters or require a contract to be issued urgently then please email Rose O’Brien or call her on extension 1835. Please note that depending on the volume of contracts according to the academic year, contracts may take some time to issue.
Get a contract renewed
If you wish to renew the contract of an existing member of staff, the nature of the contract you may offer will depend on the duration of service of the employee. Please see below for further details or to seek clarification in relation to individual cases and their entitlement, please contact your HR Advisor, or Fidelma Haffey (3364)
If the post is within one of the 3 Faculties, you will need to fill out a nomination form and an application to the relevant Faculty Executive Committee. This should be done in consultation with your Faculty HR Advisor. Once the Faculty Executive Committee have approved the renewal, the HR Department will be notified, a contract will automatically be issued and the employee’s payroll record updated.
If the post is not within a faculty (support services) you will firstly need to get approval from the Chief Operation Officer and Senior Administration Management Group. Once they have approved the contract renewal, HR will automatically issue a contract renewal letter and update the employee’s payroll record.
Under the Protection of Employees (Fixed Term Work) Act 2003, the employer is legally obliged to inform the employee in writing of why they are being offered a fixed term contract and why they are not being offered a contract of indefinite duration. Therefore every fixed term contract letter and contract renewal letter must contain this information. We would ask that you always provide this information when requesting a contract renewal. Please note that approval for renewals should be done prior to the employee’s current contract end date and the HR Department should be informed at least a month before the end date as to whether an employee is terminating employment or being renewed.
Staff with 3 years continuous service with College
Where a staff member has completed 3 years employment with College, they may only be issued with 1 further fixed term contract and this contract may only be for 1 year or less. Any renewal after this would have to be on a indefinite duration basis. Please note that the 3 years continuous employment commences from the employee’s start date in Trinity College and not just from their start date in your Department.
Staff with 4 years continuous service with College
Where a staff member has completed 4 years employment with College and you wish to renew their contract further, the employee must be offered a contract of indefinite duration, unless objective grounds exist to justify a further fixed term contract. An example of sufficient “objective grounds” would be where the fixed term staff member is covering the extended career break or secondment of a permanent member of staff who is expected to return to this post. Please note that the 4 years continuous employment commences from the employee’s start date in Trinity College and not just from their start date in your Department.
Purpose of Fixed Term Contracts
Fixed Term Contracts should only be offered where there is a genuine College need for a short-term contract such as:
- Sessional- e.g. to cover a member of staff's teaching commitments whilst on leave.
- Strategic - e.g. the piloting of new initiatives such as the Broad Curriculum Lectureships.
- Specific - a once-off fixed term contract can be issued where a specific purpose is known and the lifetime of the project is finite.