Unfair or constructive Dismissal
What is unfair dismissal?
There are several ways in which dismissal can be unfair:
- Your employer does not have a fair reason for dismissing you (e.g. to do with your job performance).
- Your employer did not follow the right process when dismissing you.
- You were dismissed for an ‘automatically unfair’ reason, such as your gender or age – or for exercising one of your
statutory (legal) employment rights, such as time off for jury service, maternity (see Pregnancy-Related
Dismissal), paternity
leave or many others.
What is Constructive dismissal?
Constructive dismissal is when an employee is forced to resign against their will because of an employer's serious breach of contract.
If this happens you may have a case against your employer.
You would need to prove that:
- Your employer has committed a serious breach of contract.
- You felt forced to leave because of that breach.
- You have not done anything to suggest that you have accepted their breach or a change in employment conditions.
Examples might be:
- Not paying you or suddenly demoting you without reason.
- Forcing you to accept unreasonable changes to the conditions of your employment without agreement (e.g. suddenly telling you to work
in another town).
- Bullying, harassment or violence from work colleagues.
- Making you work in dangerous conditions.