Discipline and Dismissals

If you have a disciplinary issue, ensure you know your rights before taking action to avoid any expensive mistakes. Our experienced team is able to advise employers on the options that are available.

To help you get a full understanding of your options we offer a free initial no obligation discussion, to ensure you get the best outcome, at the right cost. We have seen that better outcomes are achieved when one of our experienced solicitors are brought in at an early stage, before costly mistakes are made, so get in contact today for a no obligation discussion.

Below you will find some background information on the legalities surrounding this area of the law, to help you get an idea of your options.

Legal Facts…

• Dismissal happens when the employer sacks someone or fails to renew a fixed term contract on the same terms or there is a “constructive dismissal” where the employee leaves and treats herself as dismissed on the basis of a fundamental breach of contract by the employer.
• Except for special cases called “automatically unfair” dismissals an employer can avoid a successful claim by showing that it acted reasonably in dismissing for one of the following grounds:
  • Conduct
  • Capability
  • Redundancy
  • Illegality
  • ‘Some other substantial reason’
  • Retirement (but the default retirement age is due to be abolished by October 2011)
• Save for some limited exceptions employees cannot bring a claim for unfair dismissal unless they have at least one year’s continuous service.

Disciplinary & Grievance Procedures: The proper handling of disciplinary and grievance situations in the workplace is essential not only because many issues can be resolved quickly and informally but also to prevent expensive claims and an unhappy workforce. Failure by the employer or employee to follow the ACAS Code of Practice can result in awards of compensation being increased or decreased by the Employment Tribunal by up to 25%.

See also our Employment factsheet (PDF).