I believe that the fixed-term contract will still, essentially, be in force unless there was a break in service between the end of it and the start of his current employment. Whilst his end date, job description, pay and location may have changed, those will all have been changed by agreement - usually written - so all other terms will remain in force.

As a result, he'll be subject to whichever Employee Handbook is in force in the terms of his contract.

Harmonizing terms and conditions between the UK and US, though... I confess it's beyond my experience but unless your employers have exceptionally deep pockets that seems a lot like a non-starter to me. If you can't even harmonize an English style guide, harmonizing pay and benefits seems improbable!

Anke, the question of which legal jurisdiction applies comes up pretty regularly - maybe Steve Flather can flag some previous replies?. Below are some of the key principles to have in mind, plus some thoughts on your particular case

• Territoriality of place of work is usually paramount. Local statutory obligations remain obligations - the fact that someone is an employee of a foreign company dosn't take them outside of the statutory scope of the country of work. For instance, this means that if I worked permanently in the UK but was employed by an Australian company, then I would still have to comply with WTR obligations.
• The fact that payment is made by a local entity is not necessarily inconsistent with a UK contract continuing to exist.
  • Some national (or transnational) statutes extend the territoriality principle to foreign subsidiaries of countries in their scope - for example, highly paid traders in overseas subsidiaries of European Banks must defer their annual bonus over a period of at least 3 years (European CRDIII Directive) - even if traders working for local companies in Singapore (for instance) do not have the same obligation - this principle remains the exception and is not common, so by and large you can disregard it unless you are in a business that is subject to transnational regulation.
• If a person retains a contract of employment with their country of origin, then where these conditions differ from any local employment law, the more favourable of the two conditions will apply. In your example, if your person in the US has not had a variation to their UK contractual conditions to reflect their change of country, and they benefited from 4 weeks annual leave in the UK, then  they have every right to insist on 4 weeks holiday entitlement based on the implicit contractual rights
• For the above reasons it is a good idea to clarified these points before an assignment abroad begins. I recently had to untangle a messy dismissal case of a senior executive who claimed applicability of triple legislation (US, France and Canada), simply because the necessary groundwork hadn't been done 20 years earlier - very expensive.
• To keep it clean, and in an ideal world
  • specify what happens to the existing contract of employment - end by mutuaal agreement, maintained but suspended, maintained in totality
  • Specify if a local employment contract will take effect and whether it replaces or complements the UK contract, and in what areas
  • specify what happens at the end of the assignment (return to UK?)
• Beware of transposing UK benefit practices into other countries - in the US, people have little in the way of benefits (2 weeks holidays max), little or no pension cover, poor public medical cover etc. Consequently, the cash component of their package is high compared to the UK, and they have to fund this missing cover out of their net salary. IF you pay competitive salaries and include UK benefits, you will be seriously misaligned in the US market place. A colleague of mine spent two years working in Houston on a salary 50% above his previous package - previously things like medical cover, pension, schooling costs etc were either provided by the employer or by the state. He learned to his cost that this was not the case in Houston, where he ended up out of pocket when his son had a serious medical problem and he had to fund the expensive treatment from his net salary. Big salaries are needed over there to pay for what we receive for free over here.
• Equally, don't be tempted to balance the cost of the package by scaling back the US salary to reflect UK style benefits - most people want "cash now"  and will walk if the cash component is too low.
• Employment in the US is "at will", and people can be dismissed at a moment's notice "with cause" or "without cause" - this is neither good nor bad, it is just a different culture. Consequently the notion of "notice periods" other than for very senior jobs, would not be understood by most US citizens
• Avoid the temptation to evangelise UK practices and to teach the poor foreigners how things should be done in their country - that way leads to disaster and alienation
• Finally, remember that in the US employment law happens both at federal and state level with massive variation across states - so if you do need legal advice, get it from the right state.

Long post but I hope it helps

Ray

In reply to Ray:

Thank you very much, Ray.  This is extremely helpful to me.  I did look at some of the previous threads which is why I was hoping that the UK contract might still apply.  I don't know what the plan is for any of the British staff's return and I don't think anyone knew about the Totalization Agreement either, which might have been helpful but I think that ship has sailed.  I have only recently joined, most of this activity pre-dates me so there is a bit to sort out. 

I did explain to the Board that US salaries are high for a reason and that we should not add all of our benefits on top.  In other words, I am very much trying not to align our employment practices with the US ones but there seem to be vested interests at play and I need to find a way around that.  It will help very much if I can make the case that the individual's UK contract is still in force, with all that implies about the individual's expectation of what leave provisions apply.

I have spoken to a previous colleague in colleague in New York who provided a benchmark for the level of benefits typical in our industry and compiled a report into applicable federal and state law so I have a comparison to UK statutory provisions.  My aim is to provide benefits at a level that is roughly in line with other companies in our sector in New York and I now have a good idea what that is, except for paternity leave.

I will take care not to evangelise - as a foreigner myself I  hope I got that out of my system years ago.  :)

In reply to Robey:

Hi Robey and thanks for the response.
I was hoping that the contract was still applicable as I hope it will help me put a spanner in the harmonisation efforts, so this would is good.

In reply to Anka:

Glad it helps Anke
I've given up trying to figure out if I'm a foreigner after 27 years of living and working in France - but nontheless across all continents. The Brits in my Group think I've sold out the French, the French see me as an immigrant, the Belgians see me as French, the Germans see me as Swiss and the other nationals can't decide in which camp to stick me, so I must have struck a suitable balance (either that or I'm more seriously mixed up tha I thought)
Good luck with you NY challenge