East London Solicitors

Is there a time limit for bringing an Unfair Dismissal Claim?

You must bring an Unfair Dismissal claim within 3 months of being dismissed. If you don’t bring a claim within this time you will lose the right to claim.

If you had a grievance with your employer it is a requirement to raise a grievance first with your employer before you make a claim to a tribunal.

Are claims available based on bullying at work and/or harassment?

Your employer is responsible legally for the actions of staff, sometimes even if the employer was unaware of such actions, . This is known as vicarious liability. An action is also possible against the individual(s) who may have been harassing you.

The employer may also be liable if appropriate action has not been taken once a complaint has been made.

Bullying and harassment can be physical and/or verbal behaviour and can be communicated in a number of ways such as text messages, emails, verbal and physical communication. The following are examples of bullying and/or harassment:

• verbal abuse or comments
• staring, touching  comments or leering in a sexual way
• offensive gestures
• aggressive physical behaviour

Do I qualify for redundancy?

If you have over two years’ continuous employment, the company is closing down a place of work, or ceasing or diminishing the particular work undertaken by you, then you have a right to redundancy payment if made redundant.

What options are available for help with resolving an employment dispute ?

There is a growing trend in all forms of litigation towards mediation, which is often much faster and more cost effective than litigation. With employment cases, there is an excellent free resource available in the form of ACAS for high quality mediation.

With mediation, this relies on both parties to agree to participate in the process. One of the other advantages of it is that, unless and until a formal settlement agreement has been reached, mediation is non-binding and all discussions are confidential and not made known to the Employment Tribunal.

The other method which is commonly used is a compromise agreement.  If you sign a compromise agreement (which requires the employee to receive independent legal advice) this generally results in the employee receiving a sum of money in exchange for dropping any claims started and waiving rights to pursue other claims against your employer (except claims for pensions, personal injury and breach of the compromise agreement itself).

What rights are established by the Equality Act ?

In many respects the Equality Act draws together into one Act various pre-existing employment law rights in respect of discrimination and other areas. The Equality Act establishes certain “protected characteristics” such as age, disability, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation which cannot lead to direct or indirect forms of discrimination, victimization or harassment.  Employers cannot, for example, use conditions which are less favourable to certain employees with protected characteristics.

Follow this link for the main employment rights page or here for the employment law blog.