THE PROTECTIONS BELOW APPLY TO ALL EMPLOYEES

REGARDLESS OF THEIR LENGTH OF SERVICE

 

 

Asserting a statutory employment right.

 

 

Employees may complain to an employment tribunal if they are dismissed for bringing proceedings against their employer to enforce certain rights, or for alleging the employer has infringed those rights.

 

To benefit, the employee need not necessarily have specified the right, so long as it was reasonably clear to the employer what the right was.

 

Provided they act in good faith, employees are protected regardless of whether they qualified for the right they sought to assert and regardless of whether that right had in fact been infringed.  Employees can claim protection if they are dismissed after asserting rights relating to:

 

 

• written statement of employment particulars;

 

• itemised pay statement;

 

• for trade union duties and activities or training;

 

• unlawful deductions from pay;

 

• not having to make unauthorised payments to employer;

 

• guarantee payments;

 

• opting out of shop or betting work on Sunday;

 

• detriment in cases about: health and safety, Sunday working, working time, trusteeship of employee pension schemes, employee representatives, time off for study and training, protected disclosures, maternity, parental, paternity, adoption or domestic leave, or grounds related to trade union membership or activities;

 

• flexible working

 

• remuneration during suspension on medical grounds;

 

• time off: for public duties, to look for work or make arrangements for training prior to redundancy, for antenatal care, for dependants, for employee pension scheme trustee or director's duties or training, for study or training for young people, for employee representatives;

 

• minimum notice terminating employment;

 

• deduction of unauthorised or excessive union subscriptions;

 

• employer paying contribution to a union's political fund;

 

• consultation about redundancy or business transfer;

 

• working time, rest periods, breaks and annual leave;

 

Similar protection is provided for employees who are dismissed for certain actions under the Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 1999, the Part-time Workers Regulations 2000, the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004, the European Public Limited-Liability Company Regulations 2004 or because they qualify for:

 

• the national minimum wage;

 

• working families tax credit.

 

or because any action is taken (or even proposed to be taken) to enforce any of these rights.

 

 

Automatically Unfair reasons.

 

The following reasons are considered ‘automatically unfair’ if an employee is dismissed because of them regardless of length of service.  Again if any of these occurs legal action can be taken against the employer…

 

 

• pregnancy or any reason connected with maternity;

 

• taking, or seeking to take, parental leave, paternity leave (birth and adoption),

 

adoption leave or time off for dependants;

 

• failure to return from maternity or adoption leave because the employer did not give or gave inadequate notice of when the leave period should end;

 

• matters connected to/making a request under the flexible working provisions of the Employment Rights Act 1996 as amended by the Employment Act 2002;

 

• taking certain specified types of health and safety action;

 

• refusing or proposing to refuse to do shop or betting work on a Sunday;

 

• grounds related to rights under the Working Time Regulations 1998;

 

• performing or proposing to perform any duties relevant to an employee's role as an employee occupational pension scheme trustee or as a director of a trustee company;

 

• grounds related to acting as a representative for consultation about redundancy or business transfer, or as a candidate to be a representative of this kind, or taking part in the election of such a representative;

 

• making a protected disclosure within the meaning of the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998;

 

• asserting a statutory employment right;

 

• grounds related to the national minimum wage;

 

• qualifying for working tax credit or seeking to enforce a right to it (or because the employer was prosecuted or fined as a result of such action);

 

• trade union membership or activities, or non-membership of a trade union;

 

• taking lawfully organised official industrial action lasting twelve weeks or less (or more than twelve weeks, in certain circumstances);

 

• performing or proposing to perform any duties relating to an employee's role as a workforce representative or as a candidate to be such a representative for the purposes of the Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 1999, or for taking, proposing to take or failing to take certain actions in connection with these regulations;

 

• grounds related to trade union recognition procedures;

 

• exercising or seeking to exercise the right to be accompanied at a disciplinary or grievance hearing, or to accompany a fellow worker;

 

• grounds related to the Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000;

 

• grounds related to the Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002;

 

• a failure to follow the statutory dismissal procedure;

 

• grounds related to the European Public Limited-Liability Company Regulations 2004;

 

• from 6 April 2005, grounds related to the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004 for undertakings with 150 employees (from 6 April 2007 for undertakings with 100 employees and from 6 April 2008 for undertakings with 50 employees);

 

• from 6 April 2005, grounds related to jury service.