How Do I Fire, Dismiss or Terminate an Employee In the UK?
Many of you may been have led to believe by TV shows, like the apprentice, that getting rid of someone in the UK involves little more than leaning across a table, extending your arm and index finger and offering a menacing look at a candidate, and saying, “You’re Fired”. This theatrical and somewhat cavalier approach to dismissal is well suited to TV programmes, but is not suited to a modern UK office environment, protected by employment law. If you were to simply point, click and fire staff on the spot, in real-life, it’s likely you would soon be in a world of hurt, and up to your eye balls in tribunal action and employee law suits, many of which would be indefensible since you have so blatantly flouted employment regulations.
Firing, dismissing or terminating an employee in the UK requires a large degree of due process, otherwise you may be guilty of unfair dismissal or wrongful dismissal of an employee.
So, what steps do employers need to take to ensure that they fairly dismiss an employee.
1.Understand What The Fair Reasons for Dismissal Are
The first thing you should do is understand what the fair reasons for dismissal. There are 5 fair reasons for dismissing and employee in the UK as outlined on the ACAS website.
- Misconduct
- Poor performance or lack of capabilities or qualifications
- Redundancy and lack of work. Click here for guide on how to make an employee redundant.
- because of a statutory duty or restriction prohibited the employment being continued
- some other substantial reasons.
2. Act reasonably in treating that reason as genuinely suitable for dismissal
Having a good reason to dismiss an employee is not enough to be able to dismiss someone. In order to do it fairly, you’ll need to act reasonably in treating that reason as genuinely suitable for dismissal and you’ll need to follow due process as set out by employment law.
In the remainder of this article we will focus on the process for dismissing someone for performance or misconduct, which is one of the most common reasons for dismissal.
3.Follow the Redundancy Procedures in You Have a Work shortage and need to make staff redundant.
If you need some advice on making someone redundant, please read this article here.
4.Follow the Dismissal Procedures in Your Disciplinary and Grievance Procedure
Ideally, all employers should have an employee handbook which includes a disciplinary and grievance policy as you will need to follow this procedure in order to be seen to dismiss the employee fairly. If you fail to follow this procedure when dismissing an employee and you face tribunal action from a disgruntled employee any subsequent financial penalty against your business may be increased as a result.
5.Conduct an investigation into performance issues.
So, if you do find that you are facing a misconduct or performance issue with a staff member you’ll need to closely follow the disciplinary procedure which will require a full and fair investigation to take place.
6. Hold a disciplinary meeting, if deemed necessary,
If the investigate shows that there is a genuine case to be answered then this should followed by a disciplinary hearing.
7. Explain to the employee that they have a statutory right to be accompanied.
Employees have a statutory right to be accompanied by a fellow employee or trade union representative.
8. Use progressive discipline (1st, 2nd warning then dismissal), where appropriate, saving summary dismissal for more severe offences.
During the disciplinary the performance or misconduct issue should be explained to the employee and the employee gets to present their side of things, followed by a full and fair consideration of all the facts and representations by the employer, followed by a verdict, which can either be verbal warning, written warning or summary/instant dismissal. But this latter form of dismissal, that is summary dismissal, is reserved for more severe offences such as violence or dishonesty. Most situations would most likely warrant a verbal or 1st written warning, that is if the verdict is to be considered reasonable. Following these early warning it may be necessary to put the employee on a Performance Improvement Plan.
9. Explain to the Employees that They Have a Statutory Right to Appeal The Disciplinary Decision
Employees have a right to be accompanied during these tribunal hearings and they do have a right to appeal any decision, using the grievance procedure.
If you fail to follow these procedures, the dismissal of your employee is likely to be deemed automatically unfair. You’ll need the following documents to ensure that you terminate someone fairly in the UK:
2.Grievance and Disciplinary Procedures
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