Tribunal awards and payouts in unfair dismissal cases
Tribunal awards for reasons relating to unfair dismissal can be very costly to businesses and a Tribunal can order re-instatement or re-engagement no matter what the employee’s length of service to the company. Re-instatement involves the employer resuming their old role within the company whilst re-engagement would involve the employee taking up a different role with the same employer.
Compensation can also be awarded by a Tribunal; with the figure rising as high as £76,700. However should an employer choose not to comply with a re-engagement or re-engagement order, the amount a Tribunal can award is unlimited and this final figure can also include an additional award of up to £19,760. An employer would risk this type of award should they lose a Tribunal case for the following reasons:
- Automatically unfair dismissal arising out of maternity, pregnancy, paternity, parental, adoption leave, time off for dependants, flexible working, paid time off for study or training, obtaining tax credits, national minimum wage or Sunday working (shop/betting workers)
- Automatically unfair dismissal of employees for raising health & safety matters or raising protected disclosure
- Automatically unfair dismissal for trade union membership/activities/using trade union services/refusing an unlawful inducement
- Automatically unfair dismissal for employees carrying out duties as a health & safety representative, pension trustee or worker representative involved in consultation on redundancy, transfer or health & safety matters
- Automatically unfair dismissal for assertion of statutory rights, including limits and entitlements under the Working Time Regulations 1998
