What do I do if I've been unfairly dismissed?
Step 1: Appealing the decision
The first thing to do is to appeal to your employer about the decision. This should usually be done within days of your dismissal. An employer will sometimes give you details of the appeal procedure, including when and to whom you should appeal. You should write out all the reasons why you think your dismissal is unfair.
In most cases there are compulsory dismissal procedures that employers must follow. Under these compulsory procedures, your employer must notify you of the right to appeal. If the compulsory procedure is not completed before you start a claim in the Employment Tribunal (see below) and the non completion is your fault, for example because you have failed to attend a meeting or you fail to exercise a right to appeal, then the Tribunal must reduce your award by at least 10% and can make the reduction as much as 50%.
It is important to keep a record of your appeal and to ask for any minutes or notes relating to the appeal hearing.
Step 2: Getting advice
You should try and get advice as soon as you can from your Trade Union if you are a member. You can find your local CAB or Law Centre by using the links at the bottom of this page. Alternatively try a local solicitors firm. You can find a solicitor near to you that deals with employment issues by typing your postcode into the box on the right of this screen. If you have lost your job and are either on benefits, or your family income is low, you may be eligible for free advice and limited help from a solicitor. If not, you may find a solicitor who will give free one off advice, or who will act on a no win no fee basis.
Step 3: Writing to your employer
If you have not yet had been given the reasons for your dismissal in writing, and you have one year's service then you should write to your employer ( keeping a record of your letter) asking for reasons in writing to be provided in 14 days. If your employer does not provide this within the timescale you can claim 2 weeks gross pay at Tribunal. You normally need to have worked for your employer for one year to claim unfair dismissal - if you have worked for your employer for less than a year, please see "My employer has just dismissed me how do I know it is fair?"
Before lodging a claim to Tribunal you might want to see if you can reach a negotiated agreement with your employer. You can start this process off by writing a letter marked "Without Prejudice" to your employer. If you mark it "without prejudice" it should not be referred to in Tribunal. You can tell your employer what would satisfy you and avoid a claim against them. For example you could ask for your job back, for a different job, for compensation and for an agreed reference. You can ask for a combination of any or all of these things. You should include everything outstanding between you and your employer (for example don't forget holiday pay outstanding), as if you reach an agreement your employer is likely to make it conditional on your promising not to take further claims against them. If they do ask for this you should avoid promising not to bring a claim for personal injury or pension rights. It is sensible to ensure you keep these rights.
You should ask for a settlement figure with reference to what your compensation is likely to be. Compensation consists of a basic award which is calculated in a similar way to redundancy pay. It is a week's gross pay (limited to £280 currently, although this figure goes up each February, usually by about £10) multiplied by the number of complete years of service and by a factor which depends on your age (0.5 if you are up to 22 years, 1 if you are 22 -40, and 1.5 if you are 41 and over).
You also usually get about £300 to reflect the fact that you will have to work over a year in your new employment to acquire the majority of employment rights once again. If you had worked for 12 years and had acquired the right to maximum notice of 12 weeks you can ask for about six weeks pay to reflect the fact you will have to start again in a new job with little right to notice. You can also claim for your loss of earnings until you get a new job, provided you keep a record of all the attempts you make to find a new job. You might want to approach your employer with a figure that reflects the above, and perhaps be prepared to accept a lower figure, bearing in mind there are always risks involved in pursuing your rights in litigation. So, for example you might prefer to take 60% of what you are entitled to rather than risk losing in the Tribunal.
Step 4: Lodging a claim at the Employment Tribunal
If the above has not succeeded in obtaining what you want then consider lodging an Employment Tribunal claim. You do this on a form called the ET1 which can be found at Employments Tribunals Online (link at the bottom of this page). Make sure you fill in all the information that is highlighted as essential on the form. If you do not, your claim might not be accepted.
You can lodge online but you should always phone and check they receive it before the deadline in your case, even if the website tells you your claim has been lodged successfully. A case was appealed where a person was not allowed to proceed as although he believed he had successfully lodged on the web, the Tribunal did not receive it. Remember keep a copy of what you submit.
The deadline for making a claim for unfair dismissal is three months from the date your employment contract ended. So if you left employment on the 2nd August 2005 your deadline would be 1st November 2005. It is very important to meet this deadline. The Tribunal can allow late claims in exceptional circumstances if it was not reasonably practicable to submit in time but you should never deliberately miss the deadline in the hope of using this exception as the tribunal are unlikely to allow this.
Make sure you put everything you want to complain about on the form. There is no guarantee you will be allowed to add new claims at a later date. If you have not sought advice before you should do so before drafting your claim if at all possible and definitely as soon as possible after your claim is lodged. See step 2 above.
