Whether it’s a dismissal for conduct or capability reasons, collective or individual redundancy or a retirement situation, we can ensure you get it right. Legal compliance and having an effective plan to follow at these highly emotional and stressful times are vital and we can guide you through the maze in a step by step manner.
Dismissals
Regardless of the reason, when employment comes to an end it is important that it is managed appropriately and in compliance with the law. If managed incorrectly it can lead to a damaged reputation, loss of productivity and to potentially crippling unfair dismissal or discrimination claims.
There are potentially six fair reasons for dismissal, which are:
In addition to unfair dismissal claims, other claims can be attached such as:
Employers should ensure that their disciplinary procedure is compliant with the new Acas Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures. Tribunals can now raise or lower compensation by up to 25% for 'unreasonable' non-compliance with the Code. Additionally, if your procedures are actually contractual, it is also important to ensure that they are followed in order to avoid a breach of contract claim on termination.
We can also explore other viable options to dismissal, help to minimise any potential Employment Tribunal claims and ensure you conduct any intended dismissal in compliance with the law.
Redundancy
Certain obligations are prescribed by employment law such as the amount of consultation time employers must give their staff and what information must be disclosed.
We can ensure you fulfill your statutory obligations and advise on a well planned change management process to ensure everything runs as smoothly as practicably possible during a stressful time for everybody.
We can produce a Redundancy policy / procedure in advance to deliver objectivity and clarity to reduce conflict or misunderstanding in the process.
To assist leavers and give you more credibility in difficult circumstances, we also provide training and advice on such things as CV preparation, interviewing skills, sources of jobs, etc.
Retirement
The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 introduced a current default retirement age of 65 - the age at or above which employers may (if they wish) require employees to retire without having to provide justification. Dismissal of an employee by reason that he or she has reached or exceeded age 65 does not, therefore, constitute age discrimination. Equally, termination at or over the age of 65 that is genuinely due to retirement will be potentially fair as a reason for dismissal.
Employers may therefore operate a compulsory contractual retirement age of 65, impose retirement at some defined higher age, or operate without any compulsory retirement age at all, but are no longer able to require employees under age 65 to retire unless they can objectively justify such a policy.
Employees subject to compulsory retirement now have the right to lodge a formal request to continue working beyond the operative retirement date, and the employer is obliged to consider any such request through a formal "duty-to-consider procedure".
We can create a suitable Retirement policy or procedure to ensure that you fulfill your compliance obligations and do not fall foul of potential age discrimination claims.
