Employment Law
Employment Lawyers Can Answer Your Employment Law Questions
Hello, I’m Ben, a UK lawyer and will be dealing with your case today. I may also need to ask some questions to determine the legal position.
What do you specifically want to know about this please? Please note I am mobile today so may not be able to reply until later today thanks
Many thanks for your patience. If an employee has been continuously employed with their employer for at least 2 years they will be protected against unfair dismissal. This means that to fairly dismiss them the employer has to show that there was a potentially fair reason for dismissal and that a fair dismissal procedure was followed.
According to the Employment Rights Act 1996 there are five separate reasons that an employer could rely on to show that a dismissal was fair: conduct, capability, redundancy, illegality or some other substantial reason (SOSR). The employer will not only need to show that the dismissal was for one of those reasons, but also justify that it was appropriate and reasonable to use in the circumstances. In addition, they need to ensure that a fair dismissal procedure was followed and that the outcome was one that a reasonable employer would have come to in the circumstances.
The folding of a business would amount to redundancy and whilst hey do not have to consider it until it has actually happened, if they try and dismiss you before that, they must do it for one of the above-mentioned reasons. So unless suddenly you have done something which amounts to serious misconduct or your performance has become so poor that they eventually consider you cannot do your job, any potential dismissal will likely be unfair and can be challenged in the Employment Tribunal.
Does this answer your query?
All the best