Enforcement

Unfair dismissal claims are brought in the ET. ET deadlines are very short. Employees have just three months (less one day) from the date of dismissal to bring the claim. ETs rarely extend this deadline. Unions will follow their own internal procedures to decide whether to support legal claims by their members.

In a successful claim for unfair dismissal, compensation is normally the basic award, linked to age and length of service (the same amount as a redundancy payment), plus a compensatory award for future lost earnings. Where an employee has started work under new contract terms, this would normally be the difference between the old and the new terms for a period to be decided by the tribunal.