Unfair dismissal claims: what counts, who can claim, and how

The right not to be unfairly dismissed is one sentence in section 94 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. Whether you can enforce it turns on five questions drawn from the Act: were you an employee, were you dismissed, do you have the service, was the reason a fair one fairly handled, and is the claim in time. A “no” at question 1, 2 or 5 — or at 3, unless the reason is one that needs no service — ends an ordinary claim before anyone asks whether the dismissal was fair.

The “following provisions” in subsection (2) are the conditions. This page takes them in the order a tribunal meets them, then covers how a claim is made and where it can end.

The five questions, in order

1. Were you an employee?

Section 94 gives the right to an “employee”, and section 230 defines the word by the contract you work under:

Two things follow from the text. A contract of employment does not have to be written down — subsection (2) covers one that is implied, or agreed orally. And “worker” is the larger group: every employee is a worker, not every worker is an employee. Unfair dismissal belongs to employees only. The Act defines “worker” because some of its other rights reach the wider group — protection from unlawful deductions from wages in section 13, for one.

Where status is genuinely unclear — agency arrangements, personal service companies, zero-hours contracts — it is a question about your particular contract, and it is worth settling before anything else, because every later question assumes the answer.

2. Were you dismissed?

The Act gives three ways to be dismissed, and says they are the only ones:

(a) The employer ends it. With notice or without it, in a letter, a meeting or a phone call. Being paid in lieu of notice does not change the fact of dismissal. Pay in lieu of notice.

(b) A fixed-term contract is not renewed. The end of a fixed term can look as if nothing was decided. The Act counts it as a dismissal, so an employer still needs a fair reason for letting it lapse and a fair way of deciding.

(c) You resign because of the employer’s conduct. This is constructive dismissal. The test is whether the conduct entitled you to leave without notice — not whether leaving was understandable. GOV.UK gives examples of reasons serious enough: not paying you, suddenly demoting you for no reason, forcing unreasonable changes to how you work, or letting other employees harass or bully you. Constructive dismissal: before you resign.

One more rule sits beside these. If your employer has given you notice and you give counter-notice to leave earlier, section 95(2) still treats you as dismissed, for the employer’s reason. Giving notice to leave early for a new job does not turn a dismissal into a resignation.

3. Do you have the qualifying service?

Service is counted to the effective date of termination — normally the day notice runs out, not the day you were told (section 97). The Employment Rights Act 2025 replaces “two years” with “six months”, and the commencement regulations apply it where the effective date of termination falls on or after 1 January 2027, even for a dismissal decided earlier. With between six months and two years’ service, the date your employment ends can now decide whether there is a claim at all. The qualifying period before and after 1 January 2027.

Section 108(3) then switches the qualifying period off for a long list of reasons. These are the automatically unfair dismissals: among them whistleblowing (s.103A), health and safety (s.100), asserting a statutory right (s.104), leave for family reasons (s.99), jury service (s.98B) and flexible working (s.104C). If the reason or principal reason for your dismissal is one of these, the dismissal is unfair because of the reason, and your length of service does not matter.

In Northern Ireland the rules are in separate legislation, with a qualifying period of one year. Northern Ireland.

4. Was the reason fair, and was it handled fairly?

This is the heart of the claim, and it starts with the employer, not with you:

So the employer has to prove what the reason was and that it is one of five kinds:

• Capability or qualifications — “skill, aptitude, health or any other physical or mental quality” (s.98(3)(a)). Long-term sickness and performance cases sit here. Sickness absence.
• Conduct — from repeated lateness to gross misconduct. Gross misconduct.
• Redundancy — as defined in section 139: the business, the workplace, or the need for work of a particular kind has ceased or diminished. Redundancy selection.
• A legal bar — the job cannot be done without breaking a duty or restriction imposed by law, such as a role that by law needs a licence the employee no longer holds.
• Some other substantial reason — the catch-all in section 98(1)(b), for a reason “of a kind such as to justify the dismissal”.

A fair reason is not the end of it. The tribunal then asks whether dismissing for that reason was reasonable:

The words “size and administrative resources” are in the section itself: what is reasonable for a ten-person business need not match what is expected of a large one. GOV.UK puts the two halves plainly:

The procedure the Acas Code expects

For conduct and performance dismissals, the Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures sets out the basic steps. It is not an Act of Parliament, but section 207A of the 1992 Act ties money to it (below). Four of its steps:

• Written notice of the case before any hearing — “sufficient information about the alleged misconduct or poor performance and its possible consequences to enable the employee to prepare” (para 9).
• The right to be accompanied at a disciplinary hearing by one companion you choose, from the categories the Act sets — a statutory right (Employment Relations Act 1999, s.10).
• An appeal — “Where an employee feels that disciplinary action taken against them is wrong or unjust they should appeal against the decision” (para 26).
• Even for gross misconduct, “a fair disciplinary process should always be followed, before dismissing” (para 23).

The adjustment cuts both ways: section 207A(3) lets a tribunal reduce an award by up to 25% where the employee unreasonably failed to follow the Code — for example, by not appealing. Raising a grievance · Suspension during an investigation.

5. Is the claim in time?

“Six months beginning with” the effective date of termination ends the day before the same date six months later: employment ending on 15 October 2026 gives a limit of 14 April 2027. This six-month limit applies where the effective date of termination is on or after 1 October 2026; an earlier dismissal kept the older, shorter limit. Unfair dismissal time limits.

Before the claim form, Acas. Early conciliation comes first, apart from a few exemptions in the rules:

Conciliation lasts up to 12 weeks, and the days it runs are not counted towards the time limit (section 207B). The pause only works on a clock that is still running: contact Acas inside the six months, not after. Acas early conciliation, step by step.

A late claim has one way in — that it was “not reasonably practicable” to claim in time, and then only within a further period the tribunal considers reasonable. It is a question about what stopped you, not about how strong the claim is.

Examples: six situations and the question each turns on

None of these is decided by the label someone puts on it. A “restructure” that removes one named person, a fixed term “simply ending” — each is tested against the same five questions.

How to make an unfair dismissal claim

1. Ask for the reason in writing. Section 92 entitles an employee with two years’ service to a written statement of the reasons for dismissal, provided within 14 days of asking. It puts on record the reason the employer gives.
2. Appeal internally. Use the employer’s appeal stage, in writing, with your grounds. Not appealing can reduce an award by up to 25%.
3. Notify Acas. Online or by phone. A conciliator contacts both sides and tries to settle the dispute; if it settles, the terms go into a COT3 agreement.
4. Get the certificate. If conciliation ends without settlement, Acas issues an early conciliation certificate. GOV.UK says you will usually need one for each employer (respondent) you claim against.
5. Present the claim form. Online, or by post to the employment tribunal central office — Loughborough for England and Wales, Glasgow for Scotland. There is no fee.
6. The hearing and the remedy. If the claim succeeds, the tribunal must explain reinstatement and re-engagement and ask whether you want either; otherwise it awards compensation.

GOV.UK, “Make a claim to an employment tribunal”, read 1 November 2026. Claims by post from Scotland go to the Employment tribunal central office (Scotland), PO Box 27105, Glasgow G2 9JR.

What a successful claim can be worth

Compensation has two parts (section 118). The basic award follows the redundancy formula — up to one and a half weeks’ pay per year of service, with a week capped at £751 and at most 20 years, so no more than £22,530. The compensatory award is what the tribunal considers just and equitable for your losses, capped at the lower of £123,543 or 52 weeks’ pay. For an effective date of termination on or after 1 January 2027, section 25(3) of the Employment Rights Act 2025 removes that cap.

Both can come down: the compensatory award by any share the tribunal finds you caused or contributed to the dismissal (section 123(6)), and the basic award by any redundancy payment already made. Dismissals for whistleblowing or health and safety reasons (sections 103A and 100) are outside the cap already (section 124(1A)). Unfair dismissal compensation calculator · constructive dismissal compensation.

Where a claim meets a settlement agreement

A settlement agreement is a price for the claims you give up, and an unfair dismissal claim is one of the claims it can settle. The Act only lets you give it up on its terms:

Two consequences follow. The figure on offer is worth comparing with what the five questions above say a tribunal could award, and with the risk at each step. And “off the record” talks before the employment ended are inadmissible in an ordinary unfair dismissal claim, but not in an automatically unfair one; and anything said or done improperly is shielded only to the extent the tribunal considers just (section 111A). What a settlement agreement is · Protected conversations · Negotiating the figure.

The Act applies in England, Wales and Scotland alike, so the five questions are the same in Glasgow as in Leeds; claims by post from Scotland go to the tribunal’s Scottish central office in Glasgow. Glasgow · Edinburgh.

Common questions