Disciplinary issues

One of the main areas where businesses are typically exposed to an employment tribunal claim is failing to adhere to the correct procedures.

Such failure can result in an otherwise fair dismissal becoming unfair. This exposes businesses to the risk of having to spend time and money defending a claim and paying out damages, which can include an uplift as a penalty for failing to comply with the ACAS Code of Practice. 

Employees with two years continuous service are eligible to bring a claim for unfair dismissal unless their employer can demonstrate that they have successfully crossed two hurdles: 

1. that they have one of the potentially fair reasons for dismissal; and 

2. that they have gone through a fair procedure. 

The importance of complying with the procedure cannot be under-estimated. Catching an employee in the act of stealing or degrading the company on a social networking site, might satisfy the first hurdle, but without going through the correct procedures, businesses expose themselves to the risk of having to deal with a tribunal claim for unfair dismissal. 

While employees need a minimum length of service to bring a claim for “ordinary” unfair dismissal, there are some dismissals which will be automatically unfair dismissal, which do not require any length of service and have unlimited damages. We can provide you with advice and hands-on-assistance in dealing with such matters.