Dismissal: UK employment law

Essential points

• A dismissal is when the employer ends a contract of employment. Dismissals can be both fair and unfair. Employers have legal obligations to fulfil if they wish to conclude a fair dismissal.
• Employees who are unfairly dismissed may bring a claim in an employment tribunal. Such claims can be settled by the employer via a settlement agreement, by a conciliation process.
• To challenge an unfair dismissal, the employee generally must have worked for the employer for 2 years (on or after 6 April 2012). This is known as the qualifying period. 
• Some settlement agreements involve contentious issues such as non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).
• There are five potentially fair reasons for dismissal. These are capability, conduct, redundancy, statutory illegality or ‘some other substantial reason' (SOSR).
• Even where an employer can show one of the five reasons, for a dismissal to be fair they must also follow a fair procedure.
• The different types of unfair dismissal claim are:
  • Ordinary unfair dismissal.
  • Automatic unfair dismissal.
  • Constructive dismissal.