Dismissal

Any dismissal must be fair and reasonable and follow the relevant procedures appropriately. Advice should always be sought from HR Business Partners.

Fair Dismissal

A dismissal is normally fair only if the employer can show that it is for one of the following reasons:

and that they acted reasonably in treating that reason as sufficient for dismissal.

Unfair Dismissal

An employee who believes they have been dismissed unfairly can make a complaint to an Employment Tribunal.

  • in most circumstances an employee must have at least one year's continuous service before he or she can make a complaint to an employment tribunal
  • but there is no length of service requirement in relation to 'automatically unfair grounds'.

Particular care must be taken to ensure that a dismissal is not linked to an employee exercising his or her rights under legislation covering:

  • pregnancy: including all reasons relating to maternity
  • family reasons: including parental leave, paternity leave (birth and adoption), adoption leave or time off for dependants
  • representation: including acting as an employee representative and trade union membership grounds and union recognition
  • part-time and fixed-term employees
  • discrimination: including protection against discrimination on the grounds of age, sex, race, disability, sexual orientation and religion or belief
  • pay and working hours: including the Working Time Regulations, annual leave and the National Minimum Wage

Such dismissals may be classed as automatically unfair, regardless of the reasonableness of the employer's actions.

Constructive dismissal

Constructive dismissal occurs where an employee is not formally dismissed, but resigns or leaves the job under duress or because of unreasonable actions by the employer, amounting to a fundamental breach of contract by the employer. An employee with one year's service who regards himself or herself as constructively dismissed may also complain to an Employment Tribunal.