Legal Advice about Dismissals

You may be able to make a claim for unfair dismissal for any number of reasons; even if your contract with your employer ended, whether you left the business because of your own reasons, were made redundant or were even dismissed. There are three main types of dismissal which you could be affected by, they are;

• Unfair dismissal

• Constructive dismissal

• Redundancy

It is sometimes possible to hold your employer liable for the dismissal, if it can be proven to be unfair in nature.


Unfair dismissal

Unfair dismissal is when employee feels they have been sacked from their job for unfair reasons. It is possible to make a claim for unfair dismissal if your employer did not have a valid reason for firing you; if your employer did not dismiss you in the correct manner or follow the correct procedure; and finally, if your employer dismissed you automatically for a completely unfair reason.

If any of these areas apply to you, then you will be able to make a claim against your employer.

As employees do not really know what an unfair reason for dismissal is, here is a list of the main areas that are recognised as an automatic unfair dismissal:

• Dismissal of pregnant employee

• Dismissal which relates to a refusal of membership, i.e. trade unions

• Unfair selection for redundancy


Constructive dismissal

Constructive dismissal is quite similar to unfair dismissal, it is when an employee feels that they had no choice but to resign from their job because of the environment they were working in was unfair or discriminatory in some way. This will usually revolve around the actions of other employees or their employer. These actions will have forced the employee to resign and appropriate legal action for a breach of contract can be taken. Here are some examples of where an employee can be forced to resign:

• Altering job specifications, employment contracts or the location of work at short notice, if any notice is given at all

• False accusations of misconduct

• Harassment or the fear of harassment

• Over excessive disciplinary actions

• Victimisation or humiliation


Redundancy

Although redundancy is fairly common in the current economic climate and is general done legally with fairly valid reasons, it can still sometime be unfairly done. If an employee feels that they were made redundant for completely unfair reasons then they will be able to make a claim.

An employment law solicitor who specialises in unfair dismissals would greatly increase the chance of success.

There are many other areas of dismissal that could be claimed upon, these are known as potential unfair dismissals. They can be harder to regulate as they are based on more circumstantial evidence. For information on these situations I suggest you seek legal advice from a expert employment law solicitor to see if you are able to bring forward a claim.

I am a legal writer who specialises in employment law, if you would like more information about dismissals and would like to find a solicitor, I suggest you have a look at lawontheweb.co.uk.