Who is allowed to bring a claim for unfair dismissal?

To bring a claim for unfair dismissal you must:

• be an employee (see Chapter 2);

• have been dismissed (see page 273);

• have at least two years’ continuous employment by the “effective date of termination”. “Effective date of termination” has a precise technical meaning, explained on page 307. There are the following exceptions to the need for two years’ continuous service:

◊ no service is needed in cases of automatically unfair dismissal, with the exception of dismissals resulting from a business transfer or because of a spent conviction, when the normal service rules apply. Automatically unfair dismissal is explained on page 298;

◊ no service is needed for dismissals related to political belief (see page 297);

◊ no service is needed for a discriminatory dismissal (i.e. where a significant reason for the dismissal was race, religion, belief, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity or gender reassignment (see Chapter 6).

A claim for unfair dismissal carries a tribunal fee (see box on page 272). Acas Early Conciliation applies. No claim can be brought in the tribunal without an Acas Early Conciliation Certificate. The early conciliation rules do not apply to applications for interim relief (see page 127).

For more information on tribunal procedure, tribunal fees and Acas Early Conciliation (see Chapter 13).

Strict deadlines apply in the employment tribunal. If these deadlines are not met, the claim is likely to be dismissed. The deadline for a claim for unfair dismissal is three months from the dismissal date. If interim relief is sought, the deadline is much shorter — just seven days (see page 127).

See page 310 for information on how the three-month period is calculated. The tribunal has a discretion to extend time to bring the claim but requests to extend time rarely succeed. See page 309 for information on asking the tribunal to extend time.

The first step in any claim is now to submit an Acas Early Conciliation Notification Form to Acas. This new mandatory step must be taken within the normal three-month time limit for issuing the claim. See Chapter 13 for information on Acas Early Conciliation.

There is no upper age limit on the right to claim unfair dismissal.