yourjobrights.co.uk

If you lose your job for any reason you still have rights that protect you against unfair treatment. These rights apply if you have been dismissed, made redundant or your temporary or fixed term contract has not been renewed. These rights also apply even if you admit the offences in question.

Legal protection is given to many workers and employees, which effectively protects them against unfair dismissal. The most wide ranging protection against unfair dismissal is given to those employees with at least one year of continuous employment with their Employer. You need to be employed under a contract of employment to claim unfair dismissal to a tribunal.

Note that it is possible to have a verbal contract, or an "implied" contract - even where you have nothing in writing.

However even if you are casual or an Agency Worker, you have rights, and if you have worked for the same employer for some time it is possible for a contract to become "implied" through custom and practice. As a general rule though, you will need to have worked regularly for a year to make a formal claim.

You can even claim unfair dismissal if you were forced to leave your job due to your treatment at work. This is called Constructive Dismissal. It means that you have resigned or you just left your job because you felt you could no longer accept a situation - this could be because of your Employers unreasonable treatment, stress or overwork, or bullying/harassment from colleagues.

Of course, if your performance or conduct has been unacceptable to your Employer, you can be fairly dismissed from your job. In these circumstances your Employer must stil follow a fair process.

Unless your conduct has been very bad, (often known as Gross Misconduct), you are entitled to a series of Warnings before you are dismissed. There is a guide on best practice produced by ACAS (www.acas.org.uk ) . Your employer is now obliged to have a disciplinary procedure and is also required to tell you what type of offences are considered as "gross misconduct".

In any event your employer is required to follow a fair process, even if you admit the offence, and also where it is gross misconduct. Any "instant" dismissal is likely to be unfair.

Your basic rights include;

If you feel you have been unfairly dismissed you can take your claim to an Employment Tribunal. (Refer to the Section on Tribunals for more information.)You can seek compensation, or ask to be taken back by your employer. A tribunal may order your employer to take you back. If your Employer still refuses to comply, you will normally get additional compensation. At the end of the day it is your choice, but no employer can be forced to take someone back on.

You must make your claim to an Employment Tribunal within 3 months of the date your employment ended. This is important. If you do not apply within the time scale you could well lose the right to claim. Late applications will only be allowed in special situations.Even if you are still going through an appeal process, your application to a tribunal must be sent off before the three month deadline.

If you wish to know more contact our advice line.

If you think that you have been subject to Discrimination as well as dismissal, refer to our Section on Discrimination. This could well affect the compensation you are entitled to as this is unlimited for Discrimination claims. You do not require a years service for this - in fact job applicants are covered too.

If you are dismissed for gross misconduct, your Employer may decide not to make a payment for the period of notice. Even if you are dismissed for Gross Misconduct, you are still entitled to be paid any outstanding holiday pay due under the Working Time rules - If you wish to know more contact our advice line.

If your employer terminates the contract, not for Gross Misconduct, without giving or paying you the proper notice, this is also classed as a breach of contract and can amount to what is called a "wrongful dismissal". An employee who is wrongfully dismissed may make a claim to an Employment Tribunal. Your legal notice rights are a minimum of 1 week for each year of service, up to a maximum of 12 weeks - but do check your contract too, it may be longer.

There is no service requirement for this claim, unlike unfair dismissal which requires one year's service. - If this applies to you please Contact our Advice Line.

If you are an Agency worker, or you work on a casual basis, you may not be entitled to claim unfair dismissal. However you still have a number of rights in this area. If you think you were dismissed for a reason connected with Age, Race, Religion, Sex (including pregnancy)or Sexual Orientation, or Disability Discrimination, for example, you can make a claim. You may also be entitled to claim unfair dismissal if you have been working continuously for the same employer for at least a year - even through an Agency. If you wish to know more contact our advice line.

Employees who have reached the normal retirement age for their Employer, or who are 65 or over may now be able to claim - due to the Age discrimination laws which have changed the position, and you can now claim unfair dismissal (and redundancy) at any age. So if you have worked until 68 and you are then dismissed unfairly, or made redundant, you can enter a claim.

You should note that there is no service requirement for dismissals for the following reasons, SO YOU DO NOT NEED A YEARS SERVICE TO CLAIM:

If you think you have been dismissed for any of the above reasons call our advice line for assistance.

If you feel you have been unfairly dismissed you can take your claim to an Employment Tribunal. You can seek compensation, or ask to be taken back by your employer. A tribunal may order your employer to take you back if the employer still refuses to comply, you will normally get additional compensation.

As mentioned above, no service period is required for certain dismissals. In other cases you need to have a years continuous service.

Compensation for unfair dismissal is capped but can be over £65,000, (plus a basic award of over £11,000) although you should note that the average award is well below this figure. If your unfair dismissal is connected with pregnancy,discrimination (sex, race, sexual orientaion, religion or disability), the compensation is unlimited. Compensation is also unlimited if you are dismissed under the "Whistleblowers" legislation, ie. you have been dismissed for raising concerns about your Employers activities.

To claim unfair dismissal, you must normally present your claim to the tribunal service within 3 months of losing your job. In specific instances, late claims will be allowed to proceed. Even if you are going through an appeal process, do not delay in making your tribunal claim. The clock is running from the date of dismissal, not the date of the appeal!

If you wish to make a late claim, contact our helpline now to see if there is a chance it could proceed. Contact our advice line.

A dismissal may be fair if it is for one of the following reasons; although your Employer must still follow a fair process:

Even if your dismissal is for one of the above reasons, your employer must have acted reasonably.

As a minimum, your Employer should follow the standards set down in the 2009 ACAS Code, some examples are:

If you think your employer has acted unfairly or unreasonably, take further advice.

If you have been dismissed, do not delay in submitting your application to the Tribunal Service. The three month time limit applies from the effective date of dismissal - even though you may be going through some appeal process. Do not wait until your appeal is dealt with, contact the Tribunal Service... www.ets.gov.uk

You will have to apply to the Tribunal by completing a claim form. You can even make your claim "on line" by visiting the ets site.

If you are dismissed, or made redundant, your employer should give you notice of the effective date of your dismissal. The law requires that you receive at least the following notice periods:

For less than one month's service, there is no statutory notice entitlement for the employee, but check your contract..

Therefore after 6 years of completed service you would be entitled to receive 6 weeks' statutory notice. 12 weeks' notice is the most required by law, however, some contracts may provide for longer than 12 weeks and in this situation the contractual term is the effective one. Check your contract to see what your rights are.

If you are not required to work your notice your Employer should talk to you about a Payment in Lieu of your notice. If you have any concerns about this, or you wish to know more contact our advice line.

If you are given statutory notice - you must be paid during this notice period even if you are unable to work, or if sick pay has expired. You may well be entitled to certain benefits during your notice period, for example a company car.

If you are dismissed for gross misconduct , your employer may decide not to make a payment for the period of notice - but you should still get outstanding holiday pay.

If your employer terminates the contract without giving proper notice, this is also classed as a breach of contract and can amount to what is called a "wrongful dismissal". An employee who is wrongfully dismissed may make a claim to an Employment Tribunal. There is no service requirement for this claim, unlike unfair dismissal which requires one year's service. - If this applies to you go to the Tribunal Section now.

Your Employer may ask you to sign an agreement that you will not make a claim to Tribunal over your Dismissal or Redundancy. This is called a Compromise Agreement, because you will compromise your rights to go to Tribunal. Do not sign any documents until you have taken advice from an authorised advisor. Normally this is a Solicitor, although some Trade Unions have authorised advisors. Many Firms agree to pay the cost of getting independent legal advice, up to a certain amount. If you need advice on a Compromise Agreement, contact our advice line.

If you have 1 year's continuous service you must be provided with a written statement of the reason for you r dismissal, if you request this. Your employer must respond within 14 days of any request being made by an employee. A refusal or failure to comply with this request means that you may take the matter to an Employment Tribunal. You may receive compensation if your employer does not respond.

A pregnant woman does not need the 1 year's service, she has the right to a written reason for her dismissal without a qualifying period. (Any dismissal connected with pregnancy is automatically unfair, and could also be Sex Discrimination.)

The Public Interest Disclosure Act came into force during 1999. There is now protection for employees who disclose information to a third party about an alleged wrong doing by the employer - in certain defined circumstances. The first thing to note is that the Act does not introduce a general right for all "whistleblowing" to receive special protection. The aim of the Act is to channel disclosures through appropriate sources wherever possible. You are not protected if you report your employer to the media in return for payment, for example.

The Act protects workers from being dismissed or penalised by their employers for disclosing information relating to issues such as an illegal activity. You should raise the matter internally if at all possible, informing your manager or using the grievance procedure.

Examples of a protected disclosure would be:

The definition of a worker would include home workers.

There is no qualifying service for you to be protected under this legislation. The Government decided to make the compensation unlimited if an employee is dismissed for raising a genuine issue in the correct manner.

Remember, you are not protected if you leak information to the press or an inappropriate body. You must go first to your union or the appropriate authority (Police, Environment Agency, Health and Safety Executive).

Since 24 April 2000, if you are dismissed for going on strike you have certain protection against dismissal. Originally this covered the first 8 weeks of the strike, but this was extended to 12 weeks in April 2005. If you are dismissed for taking official strike action, that dismissal will be unfair. This means that the action is lawful and organised by a recognised trade union.

This 12 week "protected period" could be extended if your employer has not taken reasonable steps to resolve the dispute. Protection can also be extended if you have been "locked out" by your Employer.

There is no service requirement for you to be protected against this form of dismissal.

Note .If the strike, or other industrial action, is unofficial, there will be no protection given against dismissal.

If you have been made redundant, this is still classed as a dismissal. You may be entitled to Redundancy pay.

Statutory Redundancy pay requires 2 years continuous service (under an employment contract) with your Employer - but do check to see if your contract offers you redundancy pay before you have 2 years service. Check your contract, your employment handbook or speak to a union Rep for further help.

Even if you have been paid your redundancy pay, you may be entitled to compensation for unfair dismissal if your Employer has not followed the correct process. This involves consulting with you before telling you that you are to lose your job. If you are just told that you are redundant, without any prior warning, this is likely to be unfair.

If you have been made redundant without proper consultation, call our advice line for assistance. You may be awarded up to 3 months pay for your Employers failure to consult with you in person

If 20 or more of your colleagues are to be made redundant, your Employer is required to consult with elected representatives of the workforce on a range of topics. This process must start at least 30 days before any redundancies - and 90 days if 100 or more jobs are to be lost.

If your Employer does not do this, you may be entitled to claim up to 3 months pay as compensation for the Employers failure to consult. This is on top of Redundancy money.

If you wish to know more contact our advice line.

Redundancy is a form of dismissal. Effectively you lose your job because your employer needs fewer people. If you are made redundant, you have a number of rights. If your job still exists, or you are replaced soon after you have left, you may have a claim that you were unfairly dismissed.

Your employer may offer you another job. If you think the alternative job is unsuitable, you can turn it down and claim redundancy. You can agree to try the alternative job for four weeks. If the job is not suitable, you can still take the redundancy package at the end of the four week trial period. If you turn down a reasonable offer of another job with your current employer, you may lose your redundancy pay. A longer trial period can be agreed with you, but do get this in writing to safeguard your Redundancy rights if you decide against taking the job after the trial.

Disputes about redundancy, redundancy pay or whether an alternative job is reasonable, can be taken to an employment tribunal.

There are three broad areas where you have certain rights in relation to redundancy. These are;

Redundancy is carefully defined as one of the following:

1) Your employer has ceased to carry out his business or intends to cease to carry out his business for the purposes of which the employee is employed (ie.your employer is closing down, or closing part of the business you work in).

2) Your employer has ceased, or intends to cease, to carry on that business in the place where the employee was so employed (your employer is moving the business).

3) The requirements of that business for employees to carry out work of a particular kind have ceased or diminished or are expected to do so (your employer needs fewer workers).

4) The requirements of the business for employees to carry out work of a particular kind at a place where they were so employed have ceased or diminished or are expected to do so (your employer needs fewer workers).

If you are dismissed because of redundancy you are entitled to a Statutory redundancy payment if you have two years continuous service under a contract of employment (ie, you are not self-employed or an Agency worker). Your contract may give you more than the Statutory minimum - check this.

Your Employer should try to avoid the need for redundancy by considering the following:

The amount of redundancy pay you are entitled to will initially depend upon your contract of employment or an agreement through a trade union.

There is also a statutory minimum payment which is based on your age, length of service and your weekly pay. The upper and lower age limits were removed by the age discrimination law in October 2006, so all ages now qualify for redundancy pay, even if you are over 65 when made redundant

There are no longer any reductions which should be made in the last year of service before retirement. (The statutory redundancy entitlement used to be reduced by 1/12 for each month by which the age approaches 65.)

For calculating statutory redundancy pay, the limit on a week's pay is currently £330 per week.(2008) If you earn over this amount, this will not count towards your Statutory redundancy, but will count if your Employer pays more than the Statutory minimum. Again, for statutory purposes, the maximum service which can be taken into account is 20 years. This means that the maximum amount of redundancy pay which can be payable is 30 weeks. Redundancy pay is tax free up to a limit of £30,000.

To check if you have received the correct amount, contact our Advice Line

Employers can decide to disregard these limits and pay you higheer amounts - check your contract of employment..

The right to a statutory redundancy payment can be lost if you unreasonably refuse an offer of alternative employment with the employer or an associated employer. The offer of alternative employment must be "reasonable". You are also entitled to a trial period in this alternative employment. The statutory minimum for this trial period is 4 weeks. If employer and employee agree to a longer trial period, this will be acceptable. At the end of the trial period, if the job is not a suitable alternative, you are still entitled to claim a redundancy payment. If you turn down a reasonable offer of another job from your Employer, you may lose your redundancy pay.

There is an advisory booklet available from ACAS entitled "redundancy handling". In addition to redundancy pay, you are still entitled to be paid for your notice period, if you do not work your notice.

Employees who may not be entitled are as follows:

If you are dismissed, or made redundant, your employer should give you notice of the effective date of your dismissal. The law requires that you receive at least the following notice periods:

For less than one month's service, there is no statutory notice entitlement for the employee.

After one month's service and up to two years' service, one week's statutory notice is required, if your employment is terminated.

From two years' service and above, the notice requirement is one week's notice for each year of completed service up to a maximum of 12 years - a maximum of 12 weeks notice, to you from your employer. Therefore after 6 years of completed service you would be entitled to receive 6 weeks' statutory notice. 12 weeks' notice is the most required by law, however, some contracts may provide for longer than 12 weeks and in this situation the contractual term is the effective one. Check your contract to see what your rights are.

Before an Employer confirms any redundancies there should have been Collective Consultation as well as Individual Consultation - see above notes. If this has not happened you may be entitled to compensation, over and above your redundancy payments. For further help, contact our advice line.

If your employer wishes to make more than 20 people redundant (in a 90 day period or less), the workforce must be consulted, by law. If there is a union, which is formally recognised by your employer, it must be consulted. If there is no union, your employer must consult other representatives from the workforce.You should be offered time and support to organise representatives.

Your representatives must be consulted about ways of avoiding the need for redundancies. Consultation does not mean that agreement is reached, but your employer must genuinely consult, not just inform you about proposed job losses. The law is specific about the information that should be disclosed to your representatives. The timescale for collective consultation is:

1) Where it is intended to make 100 or more employees redundant at one establishment within a period of 90 days or less, the consultation must begin as soon as possible and at least 90 days before the first dismissal is effected.

2) Where between 20 and 99 employees are to be made redundant, consultation should begin as soon as possible - and at least 30 days before the first dismissal is due to take affect.

You should also be spoken to individually regarding any impending redundancies. Individual consultation should take place even where collective consultation is happening. This should be as soon as reasonably practicable, no time scale is set out by law. If you feel that your employer has not consulted with you, you may be entitled to compensation, called a "protective" award. For further help, contact our advice line.

The right to time off to look for alternative work or to arrange training. When you are under notice of redundancy, you have the right to paid time off work to look for another job or to look for appropriate training. There is no specific time off allowed although Tribunal cases have indicated that a maximum of two days per week would not be unreasonable.

As mentioned elsewhere, there is also the right to redundancy pay; the right to notice; and the right to a trial period if alternative work is available.

If you feel that you were forced to leave your job because of your Employers unreasonable conduct or behaviour, you may have a case that you were constructively dismissed. This actually means that you have resigned, you were not dismissed. This is a risky step to take as you are giving up your job and you may not get any compensation. You will also face the prospect of going to an Employment Tribunal to convince them that you were justified in leaving your employment. Try and sort this out with your Company if you can. Constructive dismissal really is your last resort!

If you really think that you cannot carry on working for your Employer because of unreasonable or unacceptable conduct, do not resign until you have taken some proper advice call our advice line for assistance. To win a claim of Constructive Dismissal, you will have to produce evidence at Tribunal that your Employer's conduct was a fundamental breach of contract. In other words it has to be over something significant and not a minor or trivial matter. You must resign as a result of this, not some months later!

If you have been working under a fixed term contract, and this is not renewed, this is still classed as a dismissal under employment law, and your Employer should still have followed a basic procedure. You still have the right not to be dismissed unfairly and you are protected against various forms of discrimination. Your fixed term contract may contain a clause that means you are not entitled to any Redundancy Pay. Any fixed term contracts agreed after October 2002 will not be able to exclude your rights to a Redundancy payment. If your fixed term contract has not been renewed and you are unhappy with your situation, call our advice line for assistance.