Your unfair dismissal award can still be cut for your own conduct, even after you win.
“Unfair dismissalA legal claim you can bring if your employer dismissed you without a fair reason or without following a fair process. You normally need two years of continuous employment to qualify, though some dismi... upheld; award cut 25% for contributory conductContributory conduct is blameworthy behaviour by you that a tribunal finds actually contributed to your own dismissal. It can reduce your compensation even where the dismissal itself was unfair, and u..., raised 25% for ACASThe Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service. A public body that provides free, impartial guidance on workplace rights and disputes, and runs the mandatory early conciliation process before any ... Code breach.”
Winning an unfair dismissal claim doesn't guarantee full compensation if your own conduct played a part.
- A tribunal can cut both your basic and compensatory award for contributory conduct, even after finding your dismissal unfair.
- Contributory conduct works differently to a Polkey reductionA principle that allows a tribunal to reduce your compensation if your employer could have dismissed you fairly even if they had followed the correct process. It is named after the House of Lords case.... Your employer has to prove a Polkey argument with evidence; a tribunal can find contributory conduct without that.
- Skipping a known disciplinary process makes a dismissal unfair almost automatically, however serious the conduct looks.
- Failing to follow the ACAS Code of Practice can add up to 25% to your compensation, on top of any other adjustment.
The situation
A mobile trailer technician of five years' service was dismissed after his employer found serious problems with his works van. Warning lights were showing on the dashboard, tools had been left unsecured, and there was a petrol can stored near equipment that gets hot. There were also signs he had been smoking inside it.
The company director decided to sack him on the spot without asking him about any of it, and sent the termination letter by WhatsApp with photos attached.
What the tribunal found
The dismissal was unfair. The employer genuinely believed the conduct was serious, and it was, but it never investigated, never asked him to explain, and gave him no right of appeal, despite having a disciplinary procedure in his contract it had used before. The employer had followed none of the ACAS Code of PracticeOfficial guidance issued by ACAS on how disciplinary and grievance procedures should be run. It is not law, but tribunals take it into account, and a failure to follow it can result in any award being..., so the tribunal added 25% to his compensation.
His employer argued he might have been dismissed anyway under a fair process, but put forward no evidence for that, so no reduction applied on that ground. The tribunal did, however, find that his own conduct had genuinely contributed to the dismissal. He admitted smoking in the van, and the tribunal accepted photographic evidence showing safety equipment left unsecured, rejecting his claim that the photos had been faked. The tribunal cut both his basic awardA fixed element of an unfair dismissal award, calculated by reference to your age, length of service, and weekly pay. Unlike the compensatory award, it is less affected by Polkey reductions. and compensatory awardThe main part of an unfair dismissal award, calculated to cover your actual financial loss. It is not automatic and can be reduced, including to nil, if the tribunal concludes you would have been dism... by 25% as a result.
This is a useful contrast with a case where a Polkey reduction did apply, since the two adjustments work on entirely different grounds.
Mr P Western v Cheshire Curtainsiders Ltd. Case No. 1307045/2024. Employment Tribunal (Birmingham). September 2025.