Understanding Automatic Unfair Dismissal: Protecting Employee Rights

In employment law, one crucial aspect that protects employees’ rights is “automatic unfair dismissal”.

This legal principle is enshrined in the Employment Rights Act 1996 which ensures that employers cannot terminate an employee’s contract on grounds which violate the employee’s statutory legal rights.

Let’s dig into what automatic unfair dismissal entails and why it is significant in the modern workplace:

• Automatic unfair dismissal occurs when an employer terminates an employee’s contract for reasons or various scenarios that are strictly prohibited by law.
• Automatic unfair dismissal is considered a more severe violation than ordinary unfair dismissal, as the law presumes that certain reasons for dismissal are automatically unfair, without requiring the employee to prove them. As such once the automatic unfair reason is proven, it will follow that the dismissal will be automatically unfair without the need to show that the employer acted unreasonably or failed to follow a fair procedure. This makes it significantly easier for an individual to win the case against their former employer.

There are approximately 60 grounds for which an employee can claim automatic unfair dismissal. We have listed the most common circumstances below:

• Dismissals related to maternity or paternity.
• Dismissals related to union membership.
• Dismissals related to health and safety representatives.
• Dismissals for refusal to work over 48 hours on average.
• Dismissals for insisting on being paid the National Minimum Wage.
• Dismissals in connection with an application for flexible working.
• Dismissals for enforcing rights in relation to working tax credit.
• Dismissals in connection with time off for study and training request rights.
• Dismissals in connection with carrying out jury service.

This list is not exhaustive; there are several other grounds that may mean an employee has the basis of a claim for automatically unfair dismissal.

It is important to note, in the vast majority of cases where an automatic unfair dismissal applies, you do not need any minimum qualifying period of service of 23 months and 3 weeks, to make a claim as is the case for ordinary unfair dismissal. This means if an employee can demonstrate that their dismissal was based on a reason considered automatically unfair by the law, they have the right to file a claim against their employer with the Employment Tribunal, regardless of their length of employment with the organisation.

Moreover, it’s crucial to understand that if an employee’s contract is terminated for a reason related or linked to a protected characteristic outlined in the Equality Act 2010, such as age, disability, race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation, this would not only constitute an automatically unfair dismissal but also unlawful discrimination.

For further advice, whether you are an employee or employer and wherever you are in the UK, please get in contact on 01582 853 783 and ask to speak to one of our employment team members.