Avoiding Unfair Dismissal Claims

The recently published annual report of the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) serves as another reminder of the increasing risk employers face from unfair dismissal claims.

ACAS reported that the number of unfair dismissal claims brought in 2008/09 increased to 55,000 from around 43,000 in the previous year.  With possible rewards of over £75,000 per claim, many businesses are being pushed towards insolvency by claims from former employees.

Our advice on how best to avoid wasting your time and money dealing with claims is:

• Don't employ unless you have to - consider the alternatives.



• Consider dismissing poor performing or toublesome employees before they have been employed for a year.  In most cases, employees with less than one year's service cannot claim unfair dismissal.



• Follow the correct procedure before dismissing an employee (e.g. disciplinary, redundancy etc) - this will:



• reduce the employee's scope to seek compensation; and



• reduce the chance of the employee finding a legal advisor to represent them, so increase the chance the employee decides not to bring a claim.
• Should you receive a claim, seriously consider early settlement.  The best commercial decision may be to agree a relatively small settlement rather than waste management time dealing with the claim and waste your money on legal fees.

For further advice on avoiding or dealing with unfair dismissal claims, please contact Mark Daubney (tel: 01482 324591 or mtd@sjplaw.co.uk) or Alistair Latham (tel: 01482 or ail@sjplaw.co.uk).

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