Peninsula Group, HR and Health & Safety Experts
(Last updated )
Peninsula Group, HR and Health & Safety Experts
(Last updated )
Read our Automatically Unfair Dismissal advice guides for employers, or contact us for further HR, Health & Safety and Employment law advice.
Automatically unfair dismissal occurs when the dismissal violates an employee’s statutory legal rights. In most cases, reasons for dismissal are considered automatically unfair because they violate one or more of an employee’s statutory employment rights. There are approximately 60 grounds for which an employee can claim automatic unfair dismissal. We have listed the most common circumstances below:
Automatically unfair dismissal is directly related to an employee’s rights. Firstly, it is crucial that employees are aware of the legal distinction between ordinary unfair dismissal and automatically unfair dismissal. When an employment tribunal considers an employee’s claim for ordinary unfair dismissal, they must follow certain legal protocol. This includes establishing exactly how long the employee has been working for the company in question. Generally, the employee is required to have a minimum of two years’ qualifying service in order to make a claim against the employer. However, in cases of automatically unfair dismissal, the employee can make a claim to a tribunal regardless of the length of time they have been employed.
In cases of automatically unfair dismissal, once it has been established that the employee has been dismissed for an automatically unfair reason, the tribunal will have no cause to consider whether the employer acted reasonably or not. Simply put, if the employee’s claim for automatically unfair dismissal is substantiated, the employer automatically loses the right to defend their reasons for issuing the dismissal and will therefore lose the case. Maximum compensation for an automatically unfair dismissal claim is usually equal to a year’s pay (subject to a limit of £78,962, in addition to a basic award of a maximum of £14,370), although there are a few exceptions where compensation is unlimited. These exceptions include dismissal for a discriminatory reason, or for raising a health and safety complaint.
The Employment Rights Act 1996 is the main piece of legislation covering automatic unfair dismissal. Be aware that this legislation is continually updated with new statutory employment rights. The latest statutory addition around automatic unfair dismissal came into effect on 11th January 2016. It states that employees on zero hours contracts who are dismissed for undertaking additional work with another employer can claim automatic unfair dismissal.
Automatically unfair dismissal is directly related to the following aspects of employment: Summary Dismissal Tribunal Disabilities Ethnic Origin Sexual Harassment Constructive Dismissal
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