Rights upon dismissal

Employees have certain rights:

To notice
To a written reason for the dismissal
To certain payments
To have their employer complete certain forms

Rights to notice

Legislation gives employers and employees the right to a minimum period of notice, provided that the employee has been continuously employed for one month or more.

If a contract of employment gives the employer or the employee rights to longer notice than the statutory minimum, then the longer period of notice applies.

The legislation does not prevent either employees or their employers from waiving their rights to notice or from accepting a payment in lieu of notice.

Nor does legislation affect the right of either party to terminate the contract without notice if the conduct of the other justifies it e.g. in the cases of gross misconduct. Whether termination without notice is justified is up to the courts or an Employment Tribunal to decide.

Notice to be given by an employer

An employer is required to give an employee:

at least one week’s notice of the employee has been continuously employed for between one month and two years
at least two weeks’ notice if the employee has been employed by the employer continuously for two years
one additional week’s notice for each further complete year of continuous employment for a period of less than 12 years’ continuous employment
at least 12 weeks’ notice if the employee has been employed by the employer continuously for 12 years or more.

Termination of employment on redundancy

An employee who is being dismissed as redundant is still entitled to receive notice of termination under his or her contract or legislation, whichever provides the longer period.

Standard dismissal procedures

The Employment Act 2002 (Dispute Resolution) Regulations 2004 set out a standard (three-step) procedure for handling discipline and dismissal.

However, on 6 April 2009, these statutory dispute resolution procedures were repealed in their entirety when the provisions of the Employment Act 2008 were implemented. As a result, a new Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance procedures issued by Acas came into force. Employment Tribunals now refer to this code to determine whether or not a fair process has been followed.

The code applies to any disciplinary or grievance situation but particularly where disciplinary action may result in dismissal or action just short of dismissal (such as demotion, transfer or loss of pay).

As such, employers should ensure that a fair process in line with this code is followed when dismissing an employee, in order to avoid unfair dismissal.

Right to receive a written statement of reasons for dismissal

Legislation gives most employees whose employment is terminated with or without notice, or whose limited-term contracts expire without being renewed, the right to receive from their employers, on request, a written statement of the reasons for dismissal or the non-renewal of their fixed-term contracts.

The request can be oral or in writing. Employers are required to comply with an employee’s request for a written statement within 14 days of the request being made.

Employees dismissed at any time during pregnancy or statutory maternity or adoption leave are entitled (without request) to receive from their employer a written statement of the reasons for their dismissal, regardless of their length of service.