An Overview of Unfair Dismissal

Being dismissed from a job can be hard because it brings up a whole range of uncertainties. The situation can become worse if an individual believes they have not been treated fairly. The individual may be able to gain compensation by claiming they were unfairly dismissed. Unfair Dismissals usually occur when an employer cannot justify the reasons for dismissing an employee, which would be considereded unfair in the Employment Rights Act of 1996. This means that either an employers reason for the dismissal or the process that they used to do it, were either in breach of the employment contract or clearly unfair, unlawful or not reasonable.The Industrial Relations Act of 1971 is there to protect employees who have worked in the company for over twelve months. The employer can prove that the dismissal was fair if they can show that the employee lacked qualification or capability, had not complied with rules on conduct, was subject to genuine redundancy or was dismissed for another substantial reason.

If the employer can not prove the above propositions then the dismissal can be considered as unfair, although the final judgement will usually be left up to the Employment tribunal. There are however certain situations that are considered to be automatically classified as an unfair dismissal. If an employee is dismissed for exercising or attempting to exercise any of their legal rights, unjustly selected for redundancy or dismissed because of an industrial dispute or in the time period of a business transfer then they have been unfairly dismissed. The same goes for dismissals resulting from taking action on the grounds of health and safety, pregnancy or maternity rights, being unfairly retired or in connection to disciplinary hearings.

Employees who believe they have been unfairly dismissed will have three months from the effective date of the dismissal to lodge a claim with the Employment tribunal. If the claim is successful then the tribunal can either reinstate the employee to his former position, arrange for another position to be taken within the same company or award compensation to the former employee for loss of earnings. Compensations have been known to go as high sixty five thousand pounds. However the Tribunal has the power to reduce this compensation if it becomes clear that the claimants behaviour contributed in some way to the dismissal.

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