Dismissal Solicitors | London, Thame & Gerrards Cross

Employee dismissals

Dismissing employees or making them redundant is difficult but it will get worse if you are taken to an employment tribunal to face a claim of unfair or wrongful dismissal. Our employment law solicitors have a vast amount of experience in defending unfair dismissal claims and can help you to protect your business at an employment tribunal.It is important to ensure any redundancies or dismissals your business makes follow your formal disciplinary or dismissal processes, as stated in the employee’s contract. You must also be able to prove that the reason for the redundancy or dismissal is in line with the five fair reasons stated under Sections 98 (1) and (2) of the Employment Rights Act:

Capability
Conduct
Redundancy
Breach of statutory duty
Some other substantial reason

Fair grounds

Fair grounds for dismissal include the conduct of the employee, their ability or qualifications and redundancy. You must follow a fair and reasonable dismissal procedure because an employee with two years’ continuous service who is dismissed without a fair reason, or reasonable procedure, can claim unfair dismissal.

Defending constructive unfair dismissal

If your employee decides to resign and claims that they were forced to do so because of a hostile working environment, they may try to claim constructive unfair dismissal. This is one of the many reasons why it is imperative that businesses have a solid employment contract in place and that they follow the rules laid out in that contract throughout the employment. We can help with the creation of legally binding employment contracts and can defend you if an employee does claim for constructive unfair dismissal.

Avoiding unfairness

Timely advice from our employment lawyers can make sure you avoid claims that a redundancy is unfair dismissal by ensuring that it is genuine. In general terms this means that the job must have disappeared. Also, employers must select employees for redundancy on a fair and objective basis, after reasonable consultation, with adequate notice and a fair appeals procedure.

By reaching out to our team before making any decisions regarding dismissal or redundancy, our team of employment lawyers can advise on the right procedures to follow when dismissing staff or making redundancies, helping to protect your business and minimise the risk of a legal dispute or having to pay out hefty compensations.

Defences for unfair dismissals TUPE

If you are in the process of selling, buying or merging a business and unrelated issues arise which result in redundancies or dismissals, our solicitors can help to ensure your business abides by the TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations).