All employees with more than one year’s service with their employer have protection under the Unfair Dismissal Acts 1977 to 2015.  Employees who have less than one year’s service have limited statutory protection against dismissal with some important exceptions.

The Unfair Dismissals Acts put the onus on an employer to establish whether a dismissal is fair.  Dismissals must be both substantively fair (i.e. for a fair reason) and procedurally fair (i.e. follow the requirements of natural justice).  Fair reasons for dismissal under the Act include:

• Redundancy
• Dismissal due to the Employees conduct.
• Dismissal due to the capability of the employee.

Fair dismissals may also arise out of the employee not having capacity to fulfill the obligations of the role or “another substantive reason”.

Redress for unfair dismissal under the Unfair Dismissals Acts is made to the Workplace Relations Commission and by appeal to the Labour Court.

Redress for Unfair Dismissal

The Workplace Relations Commission has the statutory power to award redress in the following forms:

• Compensation up to a maximum of two years’ remuneration.
• Reinstatement of the employee into their previous position.
• Re-engagement of the employee with effect from a particular date (without compensation for loss of earnings)

The most common form of redress awarded by the Workplace Relations Commission is compensation.  Any award of compensation is primarily based on the financial losses incurred by the Employee i.e. the period it took for the Employee to find a job at a similar level of remuneration.  The WRC can also consider whether the employee has contributed to their own dismissal.

Employees who are unfairly dismissed have anonus of finding alternative work (mitigating their losses).

It is very important that Employees who have been dismissed take legal advice in relation to their position before submitting a complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission.

If you have a query in relation to unfair dismissals, contact our specialist employment law team on 01 644 9900 or mail@danielspring.ie