Illegality and unfair dismissal rights 





The Court of Appeal has given the following guidance on the impact of illegality on unfair dismissal claims (Hall v Woolston Hall Leisure Limited [2001] ICR 99):



• a contract will be unenforceable from the start if it was entered into with the intention of committing an illegal act, or if it is expressly or impliedly barred by legislation; and 



• a contract can become unenforceable by one party if it was lawful when made but is performed illegally and that party knowingly participated in the illegal performance. 



In claims involving vulnerable or trafficked workers, tribunals may take into account the public policy of preventing trafficking and exploitation when deciding whether claimants whose contracts are tainted by illegality should be allowed to access the tribunal (Hounga v Allen [2014] UKSC 47, Okedina v Chikale [2018] UKEAT/0152/17/RN).


Someone who lies to their employer about their immigration status, falsely claiming that they have the right to work in the UK, is unlikely to be allowed to claim unfair dismissal.



Employees have been allowed to bring unfair dismissal claims in cases where:



• the employer refused requests by employees to pay their tax and National Insurance via PAYE (Warp Technologies Holdings v Nunoo and Vermani EAT/0527/04); 





• employees were paid occasional sums cash-in-hand (Annandale Engineering v Samson [1994] IRLR 59); and




• an employee was mistaken as to their employment status, incorrectly self-identifying as self-employed (Grace v BF Components Limited [2005] UKEAT 0006/05/2809).