Employ people in the UK? Concerned about taking action? If so read on.

Is employment law for employers complex?  The honest answer is it can be, with so many regulations, some of which are not widely known, it is easy to fall foul of employment law.  However, there are some ‘golden rules’ that we suggest those in positions of authority should be aware of!!!!

How long does an employee have to be continuously employed before they can make an unfair dismissal claim? The answer is, 51 weeks.  One year always gets cited and is an easy pitfall!! Employment Tribunal’s are allowed to add on an employee’s statutory notice (which after working for one month is 1 week), when deciding if the employee had accrued one year’s complete service.

There are some reasons, aside from the well-known ‘discrimination’ areas, which allow an employee to make an ‘unfair dismissal’ claim against an employer from day one.  One of the most common claims is a dismissal due to health and safety reasons.  An example is where an employee makes a health & safety complaint and is dismissed by the employer for making that complaint.  An employee does not need to be employed for 51 weeks in this respect.

What happens if we do not follow our own disciplinary procedure? Firstly, our advice is that disciplinary and grievance procedures do not form part of the contract of employment.  If they are ‘contractual’, care must be taken to ensure that the dismissal is compliant with the procedure.  For example, it could be that recent joiners are excluded from the procedure.  Whilst a recent joiner will not have sufficient continuity of service to make an unfair dismissal claim against an enployer, all employees can make a breach of contract claim from day one. So if a procedure is contractual and the employer does not follow the procedure e.g dismisses where warnings should have been issued before dismissing, an opportunity arises for a breach of contract claim.

Is one of your employees approaching or over the age of 65? Our advice is that employers must give an employee between 6 and 12 months written notice of the intended retirement date, with the opportunity to make a request to work beyond this date. Failure to do allows for variety of claims to be made.  Where written notice, pursuant with the Age Regulations is issued correctly, it virtually eliminates ‘unfair retirement’ claims.

We would always give advice that employers should treat employees fairly, such an ethos will always reduce the chance of litigation against the Company!!!