Can a Company Switch a Permanent Employee Back to Temporary Status After 2.5 Years?

Dear all, can you tell me whether a permanent employee can be made temporary by a company? After 2.5 years of being temporary and 2.7 months of being permanent, can the company make the employee temporary again?

Your question is not clear. Do you mean that you are a permanent employee due to your long service, but your employer keeps you on a temporary basis?

Certainly, an employee appointed to a permanent vacancy, declared to have completed their probation period in the post, and confirmed cannot later be made a temporary employee.

Yes, it can be possible as per the terms and conditions of the employee's offer of appointment letter. If there is any clause mentioned in his/her appointment letter, then it could be possible to change the contract from permanent to temporary. Please review the clauses of the appointment letter.

I have no idea about the relevant labor laws of Pakistan. However, a contract that empowers one party to change or reverse the very nature of the contract at their discretion would be voidable.

Employee Status and Rights

The status of an employee, once confirmed in service, becomes that of a permanent employee occupying a post and pay personal to him. This status cannot simply be taken away. In certain organizations, an employee, upon promotion, may be put on probation (such as a worker promoted to a supervisory post or a supervisor being promoted to an executive post) or on a trial period. However, during this period, the employee still retains rights over the substantive post he occupied before such an event. If the employee is found unfit for the new post, he can only be reverted back to the substantive post. Therefore, the rights an employee has earned on the permanent post held earlier cannot be merely taken away by making him a temporary employee.

To my knowledge, there's only a thin line between the permanent and temporary status of an employee in recent times, especially in the private sector. If the terms of appointment provide for relieving an employee for whatever reasons permissible as per terms and conditions (T&C) and/or HR policy of an employer, observing legal provisions such as due notice conditions, there is nothing like permanent or temporary. However, in PSUs/quasi-government establishments, it does matter as there are adequate provisions to differentiate the status between temporary posts.

Most private employers have no practice of defining a particular post as permanent or temporary. An employee joining an establishment will be treated as 'temporary' until he/she is declared 'permanent' or confirmed.

There could be a possibility where an employee who is confirmed or made permanent in a post gets promoted to a post which may be treated as temporary. In such cases, he becomes 'temporary,' I think so.