Reliable checklist to see if you have been unfairly dismissed
Have you been unfairly dismissed? Here’s a checklist to help you decide. If you need help, contact us on 0808 168 7288.
Yes/No Have you been dismissed (fired/sacked) from your job?
You have been dismissed if your employer has:
- Ended your contract of employment
- Failed to renew your fixed term contract
- Prevented you from coming back to work after maternity leave
- Made you redundant
Depending on the situation, they might have given you notice or dismissed you instantly.
You have not been dismissed if you:
- Have been suspended
- Resigned (talk to us if you resigned because your employer put you under pressure to hand in your notice or your employer breached your contract or behaved in a way you found unacceptable, because that may count as constructive dismissal)
Yes/No Are you an employee (full-time or part-time)?
You are likely to be an employee if you:
- Were given a contract, statement of terms and conditions or offer letter which includes terms like ‘employer’ and ‘employee’
- Are required to do a minimum number of hours and get paid for the time you work
- Are required to work regularly (except when you’re absent because of holiday or sickness, for example)
- Work at the business’s premises or at an address specified by the business
- Have a manager or supervisor who tells you when a piece of work should be finished and how it should be done
- Are provided by your employer with the materials, tools and equipment you need to do your job
- Can’t send someone else in to do your work
- Are entitled to paid holiday leave, sick pay, SSP, and maternity/paternity pay
- Can join the company pension scheme
- Have an employment contract that sets out procedures for redundancy, discipline and grievance
- Only work for the business (or, if you do have another job, it’s completely different)
You may not be an employee if you are:
- Classed as a ‘worker’ (for example, you do casual labour or you’re on a zero-hour contracts)
- An agency worker (in which case you are employed by the agency)
- Self-employed or freelance (you are your own boss, you decide which clients you want to take on, and you provide your own equipment)
- A police officer or in the armed forces
- A registered dock worker
- Working overseas or for a foreign government
- A share fisherperson
Yes/No Have you worked for your employer for more than two years (one year in Northern Ireland)?
If you have worked for your employer for more than two years (one in NI), you have the right to claim unfair dismissal.
Your employer should explain the reason why you have lost your job in writing within two weeks (this can be by letter or email). Let us know if they refuse, or take too long to provide it, or if you don’t understand it because it’s written in legalese.
If you have worked for your employer for less than two years, you do not have the right to claim unfair dismissal (although there are some excpetions such as health and safety dismissals or if you’re pregnant, in which case your dismissal might count as discrimination).
Yes/No Does the law consider your dismissal unfair?
There are some situations that the law considers automatically unfair. These include being dismissed because you:
- Are pregnant or on maternity leave
- Have requested your legal rights at work, such as being paid national minimum wage
- Took action about a health and safety issue
- Work in retail or a betting shop and refused to work on a Sunday
- Are a member of a trade union
- Took part in trade union activities
- Reported your employer for wrongdoing (whistleblowing)
- The business was transferred to another employer
- You didn’t declare a spent conviction
It might count as discrimination if you were dismissed for a protected characteristic, such as being:
- Pregnant or on maternity leave
- From a particular race, ethnicity or country
- Married or in a civil partnership
- Male or female
- Lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender
- Disabled
- Have a particular religion or hold a particular set of beliefs
- A different age from the people you work with
In law, it might be not be unfair dismissal if you lost your job because:
- Your performance was poor or you’ve been off sick a lot
- You behaved badly at work or committed violence or criminal activity (this is known as ‘gross misconduct’)
- Your employer can’t keep you on for legal reasons, for example, you’ve lost the right to work in the UK
- You’ve been made redundant and your employer followed a fair process when they selected you
- Your employer can prove they had a good reason for dismissing you
What this means to you
If you’ve lost your job, it might feel unfair, but that doesn’t always mean it’s unfair in law.
Every situation is different. As employment lawyers, we have years of experience in dealing with unfair dismissal. Tell us what’s happened and we’ll let you know if you have a case and your chances of winning.
We’ll need to know things like:
- Has your employer treated you in the same way as other employees in similar situations?
- Did your employer try to help you overcome performance issues, such as by giving you extra training?
- Did your employer follow a fair procedure to investigate any problems and decide whether to dismiss you?
Reliable checklist to see if you have been unfairly dismissed: Related reading
- Unfair dismissal claim: Over £2.5m awarded to cancer patient
- Our expert guide to being dismissed for being off sick
- “I’ve been dismissed because I’m unqualified”
- “I’ve been dismissed because of my absence record”
- “I’ve been dismissed because I broke the rules”
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