What is Unfair Dismissal?
Unfair Dismissal is the legal term used when an employee is dismissed by their employer and this dismissal may be unfair.
An employee might be dismissed unfairly if they were:-
- employed for at least 2 years and
- any of the following apply:
- there was no fair reason for the dismissal
- the reason was not enough to justify dismissing them
- the employer did not follow a fair procedure
If you feel you have been dismissed unfairly you can challenge the dismissal using the employer’s appeal process and the employer should detail how you can appeal the decision to dismiss you.
There are some reasons for dismissing an employee that are automatically unfair and these include:
- being pregnant or on maternity leave
- wanting to take family leave such as paternity, paternal or adoption leave
- taking part in legal official industrial action for 12 weeks or less – i.e. strike action
- asking for a legal right such as to be paid the national minimum wage
- making a flexible working request i.e. home working/hybrid working/part time
- being a trade union rep
- jury service
- whistleblowing
- forcing an employee to retire
- taking action regarding health and safety issue
An employee does not need the 2 years’ service to claim unfair dismissal if they were dismissed because of one of these automatically unfair reasons.
For further information please call the Dispute Resolution Department on 0345 241 3100, email us on mail@cplaw.co.uk or visit www.cplaw.co.uk and follow us on twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
