Unfair Dismissal Overview

To bring a standard unfair dismissal claim, you must be an employee (not a worker or self-employed contractor) and must have at least two years of continuous employment with your employer at the date your employment ended. The two-year qualifying period does not apply if your dismissal is automatically unfair.

Dismissals that are automatically unfair (no qualifying period required) include:

• Dismissal related to pregnancy, maternity, paternity, or adoption leave
• Dismissal for making a protected disclosure (whistleblowing)
• Dismissal for trade union membership or activities
• Dismissal for asserting a statutory right (e.g. claiming the minimum wage)
• Dismissal for taking part in protected industrial action
• Dismissal relating to a TUPE transfer
• Dismissal for performing jury service or public duties

Workers — including agency workers and gig economy workers — have more limited protections and cannot bring unfair dismissal claims. However, workers may have other legal protections such as claims for unlawful deduction from wages.

The Employment Rights Act 1996 sets out five potentially fair reasons for dismissal:

• Conduct: Serious misconduct or a pattern of minor misconduct. Examples include persistent unauthorised absence, breach of company rules, or a one-off act of gross misconduct such as theft or violence.
• Capability: Poor performance or the inability to do the job — including ill-health that prevents the employee from carrying out their duties.
• Redundancy: A genuine redundancy situation (see our separate redundancy guide).
• Statutory illegality: Continuing the employment would break the law — for example, an employee whose right to work in the UK has expired, or a driver who has lost their licence for a driving-essential role.
• Some other substantial reason (SOSR): A catch-all category covering situations such as a significant business reorganisation, the breakdown of trust and confidence, or an irretrievable breakdown in a working relationship.

Having a potentially fair reason is only the first hurdle. The employer must also show they acted reasonably in treating that reason as sufficient grounds for dismissal, and that they followed a fair procedure.

Even where a potentially fair reason for dismissal exists, the employer must follow a fair procedure. The Acas Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures sets the standard against which tribunal panels assess whether a procedure was fair. While the Code is not legally binding, failure to follow it can result in an uplift of up to 25% in tribunal awards.

A fair disciplinary procedure typically includes:

• A thorough investigation before any disciplinary hearing
• Written notice of the allegations and the potential consequences
• The right to be accompanied to hearings (by a trade union representative or colleague)
• A hearing at which the employee can respond to the allegations
• A written outcome with reasons
• The right to appeal the decision

For poor performance dismissals, the employer should also have issued warnings, set clear improvement targets, and given the employee a reasonable time and support to improve before dismissal.

If you win an unfair dismissal claim, the tribunal can order:

• Reinstatement or re-engagement — returning you to the same job or a comparable one. In practice, tribunals rarely order this if the working relationship has broken down.
• Basic award: Calculated in the same way as statutory redundancy pay (age, length of service, capped weekly pay of £751 for 2025/26). This represents the minimum compensation for unfair dismissal.
• Compensatory award: Compensates for actual financial loss — lost earnings, benefits, pension contributions, and the cost of finding new employment. The statutory cap is £118,223 or 52 weeks' pay, whichever is lower (2025/26). There is no cap for automatically unfair dismissals involving health and safety or whistleblowing.

Awards can be reduced if you contributed to your own dismissal (contributory fault) or if you failed to mitigate your loss by seeking other employment.