The title of this book is somewhat misleading. Far from focusing solely on part-time and fixed-term workers, it seeks to cover a very wide range of topics, commencing with an investigation of the difference between employment and self-employment, between employees and workers and the differing statutory rights attendant on such status. Then there follows a chapter on contracts of employment that seeks to explain basic contract law as well as give sample clauses. The chapter on part-time workers only starts at page 75. Later on there is also a chapter on the law of continuity of employment.

The complexity of the law and the diversity of employment contracts and policies and continuity of employment would justify a whole tome of their own (of which there are a number) and their treatment here, while well tackled, is inevitably basic. I would have preferred more on the main topics of part-time and fixed-term workers and a good deal more on the topic of flexible working, particularly focusing on what employers are doing and the problems that are being encountered/solved. As well as tackling fixed-term and part-time workers, the book also seeks to cover agency and direct temps, self-employed workers, casual staff, seasonal workers and students and looks at sex discrimination.