North West Employment Law - Specialist Employment Solicitors

Dismissal

Dismissal is when an employer terminates employment. Dismissal can be with or without notice and includes redundancy and the non-renewal of a fixed-term contract.

Constructive Dismissal

This occurs when an employee is forced to resign because of the employer’s conduct eg reducing your wages, demotion, bullying and harassment; forcing you to work excessively long hours or to work in extremely poor or dangerous conditions. There may be one incident which is sufficient to trigger a constructive dismissal claim or there can be a series of actions which will leave an employee feeling that they have no option but to resign. Constructive dismissal claims are difficult and it is vital to be sure that your employer’s conduct is serious enough to justify resignation, but you must not delay too long before deciding to resign.

Redundancy

Redundancy is when an employer ceases or reduces work of a particular kind. This ranges from when an employer reduces one section of the workforce to complete closure of a business. A dismissal for redundancy can be unfair if the employer does not use a fair process to decide which employees are selected for redundancy. All employees who have 2 or more years continuous service at the time of the redundancy are entitled to a statutory redundancy payment. The amount is based on age and length of service. If 20 or more employees at the same workplace are made redundant and there has not been adequate consultation about the redundancies you may be entitled to a protective award of up to 90 days pay.

For further information please read our Employee’s Guide To Redundancy

Unfair Dismissal

DiscriminationA dismissal will be unfair unless

  • the employer had a fair reason for dismissal, and
  • the employer followed a reasonable procedure, and
  • the decision to dismiss was reasonable.

Potentially fair reasons for dismissal are

  • misconduct
  • capability (lack of skills/ qualifications or ill health)
  • redundancy
  • retirement
  • breach of a legal requirement (eg a driver becomes disqualified and there is no suitable alternative job)
  • some other substantial reason justifying dismissal (eg business reorganisation)

Automatically Unfair Dismissal

Some dismissals are automatically unfair (eg where the reason is the employee’s pregnancy or trade union membership, where the employee takes certain actions as a result of health and safety concerns, or where the employee insists on the right to work no more than 48 hours per week)

Bringing an Employment Tribunal Claim

Unless your dismissal is for an automatically unfair reason you must have been continuously employed for 1 year before you can claim unfair dismissal.

Before making a claim it is normally advisable to write to your employer to appeal your dismissal. Or if you want to claim constructive dismissal in most cases it is advisable to send a written grievance to your employer before issuing your claim. If you are considering a constructive dismissal claim it is much better to seek advice on whether your employer’s behaviour is sufficiently serious to establish a claim before you resign, but you must act promptly.

In all cases there are strict time limits and so it is important to seek legal advice as soon as possible.