Zaheed Harunani
Paralegal
2 Oct, 2010

Unfair dismissal refers to when an employee is let go for reasons that are not fair. In this article we will discuss who is eligible for this type of claim, how to recognize this unfair treatment, and how much compensation can be awarded.

The first thing that we have to determine is whether or not an employee qualifies for damages from being unfairly dismissed. An employee must have worked under his current employer for at least one year to file a claim. It is also important to realize that an employee doesn't have to be fired to be dismissed, if he or she is not being paid their wages they still have a claim. An employee must also be under the age of sixty five or the normal retirement age of the company. And finally the employee must have a job in this country.

A claim for unfair dismissal must be brought to the tribunal within three months. It is advisable not to delay in filing this claim or it won't be taken seriously. Once the claim is taken to the employment tribunal, the tribunal will look at the case and determine if there was an unfair dismissal and how much the damages should be.

There are several factors for which an employer could unfairly fire an employee. If the employee is fired for communicating with a union or taking part in their activities; this is unfair. The employer cannot also force an employee to join in a union he or she does not wish to be a part of. In addition, employees can file a claim that they were fired for redundancy unfairly. In other words they were chosen for this firing when they could have not been, and were selected because of some feature they have such as race, age, religion and so on.

If an employee feels he or she has been fired unfairly and qualifies for the claim, he or she can take the case to the tribunal and hope to receive damages. This amount varies and usually depends on the wages and structure of the employees contract with his their employee. The basic award for a certain unfair dismissal claim is £4,700, however the maximum compensatory award can be up to £65,300. The maximum a tribunal can award for a wrongful dismissal claim, i.e. a breach of contract, can be up to £25,000. And in the event the tribunal seeks to award on a claim for discrimination, there would be no limit on that amount.

Unfair dismissal claims are not frequently seen in this country and can be harder to win in the tribunal than other damages. However, if an employee does feel he or she has been unfairly treated in anyway, he or she should always think about taking their case to the tribunal.