Buddy says: The term “career break” has no meaning in law, but is a concept many employers will be familiar with.  For employers, career breaks can be a means of retaining valued staff, in whom the employer may have invested significant training and development. Career breaks can also help to retain staff in areas where there are skills shortages.   

Although not officially recognised in law, it is possible for employers to regulate such breaks.  Therefore, an increasing number of employers are choosing to implement a career break policy to assist them in this area.  It is important, for both parties, that expectations and obligations are clearly understood and documented before an employee goes on a career break.

Employer Information: A career break may be structured in one of two ways; firstly, an individual can remain an employee, but agree to vary the terms and conditions of his/her contract or secondly, an employee may be required to resign from their employment at the commencement of the career break with a view to reengagement at a later date.

An important consideration that employers need to be aware of is the effect of a career break on an employee’s continuity of service.  In terms of statutory rights, an employee’s right to claim unfair dismissal or the right to a redundancy payment, is based on minimum periods of continuous service.  Generally, where the contract of employment is terminated at the commencement of the career break, continuity will not be preserved and therefore statutory employment protection rights will not be maintained. This has been illustrated in the case of Curr v Marks & Spencer plc (2003).

However, if an employer should require an employee to resign in order to commence a career break, but also to return to work from time to time in order to refresh his/her skills, following the case of Unwin v Barclays Bank (2003), there is a risk of a finding that the employee’s service was continuous.  Therefore, it is important to be clear about whether or not an individual is to remain employed or not, and to give effect to that intention in the terms of the career break agreement.

It is also important for an employer to be careful about what guarantees it makes to an individual in terms of re-appointment.  Re-appointment may not always be possible, especially in the event of a future reorganisation of the business or a redundancy situation.  Therefore, an employer may agree that a returning employee will be offered a post similar in grade and responsibilities to the former post, and/or re-appointment on an equivalent salary, rather than promising the original job back.