Solicitor Southampton

EMPLOYMENT LAW FIRM SOUTHAMPTON – ADVICE FOR EMPLOYEES IN SOUTHAMPTON

Employment Law Services

It is sometimes difficult to cut through the legal jargon and understand what rights you have in the workplace.  If you are having a problem and work and want to know your employment rights, you are in the right place.

We provide a wide range of employment law related advice, including advice on:

• Discrimination under the Equality Act 2010
• Compromise agreements, including negotiations and redrafting of agreements
• Unfair dismissal
• Resolving general workplace grievances

Unfair dismissal

There are three types of unfair dismissal: automatic, contested and constructive unfair dismissal.

Automatic unfair dismissal happens where an employee is dismissed for:

• Involvement in trade union activity and/or industrial action
• Taking statutory maternity/paternity leave
• Disclosing information in the public interest under the Public Interest Disclosure Act
• Asserting statutory employment rights through formal procedures

If a tribunal finds an employee to have been dismissed for one of these reasons, the employer will have to show that one of the reasons did not actually factor in the dismissal decision.

Contested unfair dismissal occurs where an employee asserts he has been unfairly dismissed the contests the issue at an employment tribunal.  Unlike automatic unfair dismissal, the onus is on the employee to show that the dismissal was unfair.  If, for example, discriminatory reasons factor in the decision to dismiss the employee, then the employee will have to actually show this was the case.

Constructive unfair dismissal happens where an employee leaves due to a workplace atmosphere or work place conditions created by the employer have become so difficult that the employee has no choice but to leave.

The Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act refers to discrimination against ‘protected characteristics’ which includes gender, age, sexual orientation, disabilities and race.  Discrimination can come in both direct and indirect forms.  Even where someone does not possess a protected characteristic, but is discriminated on the basis that he associates with someone who does, this type of behaviour is covered by the Equality Act.  Also included are circumstances where customers or business associates discriminate an employee with a protected characteristic and the employer does nothing to prevent.

Here to help

To get sensible and practical advice and found out exactly where you stand, please get in touch with our employment law specialists at your earliest convenience.