County Council - Contract

yop

Guys,
Any of you ever been or heard of County Council given jobs for say 1 or 2 years.
Are they in the habit of rolling these on or are they inclinded to just give a 1 year? Developement job.

Thanks

floyd333

I was on a rolling contract for a good number of years but left for a better position. If you are make a good impression they'll keep you on and extend it. Then if they get some spare cash you will get permanent but you must do an external interview but don't worry they are ALWAYS fixed so the internal candidate gets it.

yop

Was that a CoCo you were in floyd33?

nesf

floyd333 wrote:

but don't worry they are ALWAYS fixed so the internal candidate gets it.

I wouldn't quite agree with that but since you're generally interviewing for a job that is exactly what you've been doing for the past 2 years or whatever gives you a strong advantage over external candidates tbh. Unless someone truly exceptional applies there's little reason to take a chance on someone where you already have somebody who you know already can do the job to the standard you want.

All of this only works if you are competent though.

floyd333

nesf wrote:

I wouldn't quite agree with that but since you're generally interviewing for a job that is exactly what you've been doing for the past 2 years or whatever gives you a strong advantage over external candidates tbh. Unless someone truly exceptional applies there's little reason to take a chance on someone where you already have somebody who you know already can do the job to the standard you want.

All of this only works if you are competent though.

I know of several cases in different LA's where the interviews were rigged for the internal person. Despite the fact some of the external candidates were miles better. You can have a job for life Yop if you do well in your 1sy year.

Yop. I it was in a LA. Good luck.

yop

I did a bit of digging on this and now it seems that they are sticking to the 1 year contract run so now I think I am not so keen!!!

zoemax

County Councils have a good reason not to renew or extend contracts. Under the fixed term workers act it is possible for temporary contracts to become permanent contracts. An employer may only engage you for a maximum of two contracts, and the duration of the second contract can only take you up to a period of four years service max. If after this period a third contract is offered or if the second contract takes you past four years service then it becomes a 'contract of indefinite duration' i.e. permanent. This applies unless there are 'objective reasons' to using contract workers, e.g. specific project works; targeted funding use; etc. This act has helped lots of contract employees in the public sector to become permanent as the unions object to almost all 'objective reasons' given by the government / councils for using contract workers. Another thing to note is that if you have done more than 4 years on contract and have had more than 1 contract and you are then let go because you were contracted for 'objective reasons' your employer under this same act cannot advertise your job as permanent, they have to give it to you.

RainyDay

floyd333 wrote:

I know of several cases in different LA's where the interviews were rigged for the internal person. Despite the fact some of the external candidates were miles better.

In whose opinion were the external candidates 'miles better' - yours? the external candidates?

Public sector recruitment is completely open and transparent. Any sign of bias or 'rigging' could be easily exposed through appeals/FOI/Equality Tribunal etc.

BC

Just to add...public sector organisations don't have to advertise 1 year contracts externally. They could just advertise it internally which is probably what they would do if there was an internal candidate likely to get it.

floyd333

RainyDay wrote:

In whose opinion were the external candidates 'miles better' - yours? the external candidates?

Public sector recruitment is completely open and transparent. Any sign of bias or 'rigging' could be easily exposed through appeals/FOI/Equality Tribunal etc.

We are talking about IT development jobs here. I networked with people from other LA's and we knew of many external candidates who had much better experience and were better educated but the internal guy always got the job. It was common knowledge that if a manger wanted his guy to get the job, he would pick his buddies to be on the interview board thus guaranteeing his guys
got the job. It's not really fair on people who go to great lengths applying for jobs.....

RainyDay

I've seen external candidates come into interview all cocky about their 'better experience and better education' who had failed to do even the most basic research about the target organisation - they had no idea about the role of a local authority, the differences between local government & central government. This was for roles where a working knowledge of local govt was specified as an important criteria for the role.

Line managers don't get to pick interview boards. That would be done by the HR dept. So now, you'd need a conspiracy between;
1) HR manager
2) Line manager
3) 2 other external managers on interview board

to explain why your guy didn't get the job. A more rational explanation might be that your guy just wasn't up to scratch. Did they seek feedback from the interview to understand where they fell down?