Hello, I hope this is okay to post/ask, but some happenings at work have made me nervous and I've lurked here for a long time and the community makes me feel safe asking.
6 months ago I got a new job, it's actually alright. Salary could be better but teammates, workload and schedule is reasonable and I'm enjoying work for the first time which is huge for me.
Some people in different departments have been dismissed because their contracts are ending. When I applied, I noticed on the job description said 12 months but when interviewed it didn't come up, nor was it in the offer letter etc and nor is it in my contract. It hasn't been mentioned once and I noticed its on all positions though I'm sure people have been there longer. I mentioned it in interview briefly and they said “oh no, that wouldn't be suitable for the position you're in”, as in my job is quite niche and needs to be done always so there'd be no point in it being a temporary contract. I also noticed that the people getting dismissed kind of did have jobs that were temp, like it suited their role positions (eg one guy was hired on a monthly rolling one to sort some IT stuff that would eventually be finished and then he was let go).
There's nothing that I can see in my contract that has an end date, and my profile/payroll account type when I look in our portal just says “general staff” and I wonder would it say fixed term if it was the case. The only terms and conditions stuff I can see is that I have to pass a 6 month probationary period (that no one has brought up since I was hired). The obvious is to ask HR or my boss obviously, and I fully plan to – I'm just quite a nervous person and I'd like some extra reassurance/and to know some rights etc. I should have nailed it down sooner, but I stumbled into the job in a panic about leaving a terrible one I was in prior and it won't leave the back of my head because I actually want to keep working there hah.
TLDR – If your position was temporary, should your contract state an end date, and if there's no end date, is it safe to assume that you're just employed permanently?
Thank you in advance