Fact Sheets | Employment Law | Unfair Dismissal?

What is Unfair Dismissal?

An employee employed for one year or more can make a claim for unfair dismissal in certain circumstances.

It is usually obvious to both employer and employee when an employee has been dismissed but an employee may also claim unfair dismissal where a fixed term contract expires but is not renewed or where an employee has reason to resign because of the conduct of the employer (constructive dismissal).

Fair or Unfair?

For an employer to dismiss an employee fairly the employer must show that he had a valid reason for dismissing the employee and that he acted reasonably in treating that reason as a sufficient reason for dismissing the employee.

Potentially Fair Reasons

A number of reasons are potentially fair and enable the employer to dismiss the employee, these are:-

Conduct
Capability
Redundancy
Legal Requirement
Some other substantial reason
Retirement

However if the employer does not follow a reasonable procedure the dismissal will be unfair.

Automatically Unfair Dismissals

In some circumstances a dismissal is unquestionably unfair :-

Trade Union participation
Dismissal on the grounds of pregnancy or maternity
Dismissal on the transfer of an undertaking
Dismissal relating to various other conduct protected by the law.

Reasonable Procedure

An employer must act reasonably in all the circumstances in treating the reason for dismissing the employee as a sufficient reason for the dismissals. Employers are under a duty to follow a reasonable procedure in line with the ACAS Code of Practice when disciplining and dismissing an employee. The purpose of the Code of Practice is to make sure all employees are treated fairly.

Compensation

A successful employee will be able to claim a basic award which is based on the number of years of employment. They will also be able to claim a compensatory award made up of loss of earnings, future loss of earnings, pension loss and reasonable expenses incurred by the employee as a result of the dismissal.