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Not every employee is eligible to make a claim for unfair dismissal or a redundancy payment. There are certain requirements that must be met before they are able to lodge a claim with the employment tribunal.
In addition to a contractual claim for wrongful dismissal and claims of discrimination, there are two further claims that are available to an employee on termination of their employment. These claims arise as a result of statutory rights given to him or her, namely the right to a redundancy payment and the right not to be unfairly dismissed.
These claims differ from claims of wrongful dismissal and discrimination in many respects, most notably because not every employee is eligible to present a claim for redundancy or unfair dismissal.
In order for employees to succeed with a claim for a redundancy payment or to proceed with a complaint of unfair dismissal, they must:
Before any person can even consider a claim for a redundancy pay or unfair dismissal, they must be 'an employee'. An employee is defined as an individual who works under a contract of employment. There is a distinction between an employee and an independent contractor - an independent contractor is not an employee.
There is no longer a requirement that an employee must ordinarily work in Great Britain in order to qualify for protection under the Employment Rights Act 1996 (or Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996). This requirement was considered by the Government to be unnecessary and an obstacle to fair treatment in a few cases. In spite of its removal, international law and the principles of our own domestic law have the effect that UK employment law will not apply where this is not appropriate. In order for UK law to apply in a particular case, there must be some proper connection with the UK first, i.e. the features of the employment or other circumstances of the case are such that the case has a closer connection with the UK than with other countries, and where other aspects of the situation would also be covered by UK law.
An employee must have been continuously employed for two years (or one year, if their employment began before 6 April 2012) before qualifying to make a complaint for unfair dismissal, unless the employee has been dismissed for any of the following reasons:
An employee must have two years' continuous employment in order to qualify to make a claim for a redundancy payment.
If the employee has raised their claim with their employer prior to making a claim at an employment tribunal and, following negotiations, he or she has agreed a settlement then they should be asked to enter into a 'compromise agreement' in order to formally settle their claim.
The terms of the compromise agreement will usually specify the amount of compensation to be paid to the employee and in return, the employee (having received independent legal advice) will agree not to pursue certain legal claims that he or she may have against the employer that relate to their employment and its termination (as well as agreeing to any further conditions that the employer may impose). Consequently, if the employee has signed a legally binding compromise agreement, the employee may be prevented from pursuing proceedings before an employment tribunal. See the section on compromise agreements for further information.
If the employee's contract is illegal (such as where an employee does not have the necessary immigration rights to work or remain in the country) or if the employee knows that it is being operated unlawfully (the parties use an otherwise legal employment contract to undertake unlawful activities such as where the employer and employee enter into an arrangement to evade PAYE or national insurance payments) then they will not be able to pursue a claim for unfair dismissal or a redundancy payment. The reason for this is that it would be against public policy to legitimise an illegal contract.
Whether or not an employee will be able to pursue a claim in the employment tribunal will depend of the facts of each case. However, the courts will consider the following:
Industrial action, such as strikes, should only take place after a trade union has complied with certain strict statutory requirements which include balloting their members and serving notice on the employer. If these requirements have been complied with then the industrial action will be 'protected' meaning that an employer will not be able to issue civil proceedings against the trade union and will not be able to fairly dismiss their members for taking part in any action.
However, if the trade union fails to follow the correct procedures or if their members take unauthorised action, the strike (or picketing) will be unlawful and therefore 'unprotected'. In such circumstances, an employer may fairly dismiss any employees who take part in the industrial action although we would recommend that legal advice should be sought before making any dismissals.
