10. Dismissal 




Who can 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 below);



• have (in most cases) at least two years’ continuous employment by the “effective date of termination”. This phrase has a precise technical meaning, explained on page 347. For some types of dismissal, no service is needed (see below). 




No service is needed for a claim of:


• automatically unfair dismissal (except for dismissals due to a business transfer or a spent conviction). Automatically unfair dismissal is explained on page 342; 




• dismissal related to political belief (see page 337); and




• discriminatory dismissal (see Chapter 7: Discrimination).




The first step in all claims (except a claim for interim relief, see Chapter 5) is to submit a completed Acas Early Conciliation (EC) Notification Form to Acas. This mandatory step must be taken within three months of the dismissal date. Deadlines are applied strictly in the employment tribunal. For information on how to calculate the three-month period, see page 349. 


Acas EC affects the time limit for making an employment tribunal claim. This is explained in Chapter 14, which also contains general information about bringing a tribunal claim. Acas EC is free of charge.
The tribunal has a discretion to extend time to bring a tribunal claim, but successful requests to extend time are rare (see page 350). 



If interim relief is sought, the deadline is much shorter — just seven days. This seven day deadline cannot be extended.




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